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The 20th century was marked by: (a) two devastating world wars;
(b) the Great Depression of the 1930s; (c) the end of vast colonial
empires; (d) rapid advances in science and technology, from the
first airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina (US) to the
landing on the moon; (e) the Cold War between the Western alliance
and the Warsaw Pact nations; (f) a sharp rise in living standards
in North America, Europe, and Japan; (g) increased concerns about
the environment, including loss of forests, shortages of energy
and water, the decline in biological diversity, and air pollution;
(h) the onset of the AIDS epidemic; and (i) the ultimate emergence
of the US as the only world superpower. The planet's population
continues to explode: from 1 billion in 1820, to 2 billion in
1930, 3 billion in 1960, 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1988,
and 6 billion in 2000. For the 21st century, the continued exponential
growth in science and technology raises both hopes (e.g., advances
in medicine) and fears (e.g., development of even more lethal
weapons of war).
Physical Map of the World, Political Map of the World, Standard
Time Zones of the World
Area:
total:
510.072 million sq km land: 148.94 million sq km water: 361.132 million sq km note: 70.8% of
the world's surface is water, 29.2% is land
Area - comparative:
land area about 16 times the size of the US
Land boundaries:
the land boundaries in the world total 250,472 km (not counting
shared boundaries twice); two nations, China and Russia, each
border 14 other countries note: 43 nations and other
areas are landlocked, these include: Afghanistan, Andorra, Armenia,
Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Burkina
Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Czech Republic,
Ethiopia, Holy See (Vatican City), Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Laos, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malawi, Mali, Moldova,
Mongolia, Nepal, Niger, Paraguay, Rwanda, San Marino, Slovakia,
Swaziland, Switzerland, Tajikistan, The Former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, West Bank, Zambia,
Zimbabwe; two of these, Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan, are doubly
landlocked
Coastline:
356,000 km note: 98 nations and other entities are
islands that border no other countries, they include: American
Samoa, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Ashmore and Cartier
Islands, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Baker Island, Barbados, Bassas
da India, Bermuda, Bouvet Island, British Indian Ocean Territory,
British Virgin Islands, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Christmas
Island, Clipperton Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Comoros, Cook
Islands, Coral Sea Islands, Cuba, Cyprus, Dominica, Europa Island,
Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Faroe Islands, Fiji, French
Polynesia, French Southern and Antarctic Lands, Glorioso Islands,
Greenland, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey, Heard Island and McDonald
Islands, Howland Island, Iceland, Jamaica, Jan Mayen, Japan, Jarvis
Island, Jersey, Johnston Atoll, Juan de Nova Island, Kingman Reef,
Kiribati, Madagascar, Maldives, Malta, Isle of Man, Marshall Islands,
Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Federated States of Micronesia,
Midway Islands, Montserrat, Nauru, Navassa Island, New Caledonia,
New Zealand, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau,
Palmyra Atoll, Paracel Islands, Philippines, Pitcairn Islands,
Puerto Rico, Reunion, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint
Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,
Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Singapore, Solomon Islands,
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Spratly Islands,
Sri Lanka, Svalbard, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tromelin
Island, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Virgin Islands,
Wake Island, Wallis and Futuna, Taiwan
Maritime claims:
a variety of situations exist, but in general, most countries
make the following claims measured from the mean low-tide baseline
as described in the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea:
territorial sea - 12 nm, contiguous zone - 24 nm, and exclusive
economic zone - 200 nm; additional zones provide for exploitation
of continental shelf resources and an exclusive fishing zone;
boundary situations with neighboring states prevent many countries
from extending their fishing or economic zones to a full 200 nm
Climate:
two large areas of polar climates separated by two rather narrow
temperate zones form a wide equatorial band of tropical to subtropical
climates
Terrain:
the greatest ocean depth is the Mariana Trench at 10,924 m in
the Pacific Ocean
Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Bentley Subglacial Trench -2,540 m note: in the oceanic realm, Challenger Deep in the Mariana
Trench is the lowest point, lying -10,924 m below the surface
of the Pacific Ocean highest point: Mount Everest
8,850 m (1999 est.)
Natural resources:
the rapid depletion of nonrenewable mineral resources, the depletion
of forest areas and wetlands, the extinction of animal and plant
species, and the deterioration in air and water quality (especially
in Eastern Europe, the former USSR, and China) pose serious long-term
problems that governments and peoples are only beginning to address
large areas subject to severe weather (tropical cyclones), natural
disasters (earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions)
Environment - current
issues:
large areas subject to overpopulation, industrial disasters, pollution
(air, water, acid rain, toxic substances), loss of vegetation
(overgrazing, deforestation, desertification), loss of wildlife,
soil degradation, soil depletion, erosion
Geography - note:
the world is now thought to be about 4.55 billion years old, just
about one-third of the 13-billion-year age estimated for the universe
0-14 years: 28.2% (male 925,276,767; female 875,567,830)
15-64 years: 64.5% (male 2,083,789,165; female 2,033,226,759)
65 years and over: 7.2% (male 203,286,504; female
257,705,851) note: some countries do not maintain
age structure information, thus a slight discrepancy exists between
the total world population and the total for world age structure
(2004 est.)
Population
growth rate:
1.14% (2004 est.)
Birth
rate:
20.24 births/1,000 population (2004 est.)
Death
rate:
8.86 deaths/1,000 population (2004 est.)
Sex
ratio:
at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female under 15 years:
1.06 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female total
population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2004 est.)
Infant
mortality rate:
total: 50.31 deaths/1,000 live births male:
52.17 deaths/1,000 live births female: 48.33 deaths/1,000
live births (2004 est.)
Life
expectancy at birth:
total population: 64.05 years male: 62.48
years female: 65.7 years (2004 est.)
Chinese, Mandarin 14.37%, Hindi 6.02%, English 5.61%, Spanish
5.59%, Bengali 3.4%, Portuguese 2.63%, Russian 2.75%, Japanese
2.06%, German, Standard 1.64%, Korean 1.28%, French 1.27% (2000
est.) note: percents are for "first language" speakers
only
Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 77% male: 83% female:
71% (1995 est.)
Global output rose by 3.7% in 2003, led by China (9.1%), India
(7.6%), and Russia (7.3%). The other 14 successor nations of the
USSR and the other old Warsaw Pact nations again experienced widely
divergent growth rates; the three Baltic nations continued as
strong performers, in the 5%-7% range of growth. Growth results
posted by the major industrial countries varied from a loss by
Germany (-0.1%) to a strong gain by the United States (3.1%).
The developing nations also varied in their growth results, with
many countries facing population increases that erode gains in
output. Externally, the nation-state, as a bedrock economic-political
institution, is steadily losing control over international flows
of people, goods, funds, and technology. Internally, the central
government often finds its control over resources slipping as
separatist regional movements - typically based on ethnicity -
gain momentum, e.g., in many of the successor states of the former
Soviet Union, in the former Yugoslavia, in India, in Iraq, in
Indonesia, and in Canada. Externally, the central government is
losing decision-making powers to international bodies. In Western
Europe, governments face the difficult political problem of channeling
resources away from welfare programs in order to increase investment
and strengthen incentives to seek employment. The addition of
80 million people each year to an already overcrowded globe is
exacerbating the problems of pollution, desertification, underemployment,
epidemics, and famine. Because of their own internal problems
and priorities, the industrialized countries devote insufficient
resources to deal effectively with the poorer areas of the world,
which, at least from the economic point of view, are becoming
further marginalized. The introduction of the euro as the common
currency of much of Western Europe in January 1999, while paving
the way for an integrated economic powerhouse, poses economic
risks because of varying levels of income and cultural and political
differences among the participating nations. The terrorist attacks
on the US on 11 September 2001 accentuate a further growing risk
to global prosperity, illustrated, for example, by the reallocation
of resources away from investment to anti-terrorist programs.
The opening of war in March 2003 between a US-led coalition and
Iraq added new uncertainties to global economic prospects. After
the coalition victory, the complex political difficulties and
the high economic cost of establishing domestic order in Iraq
became major global problems that continue into 2004.
GDP:
GWP (gross world product) - purchasing power parity - $51.48 trillion
(2003 est.)
Household
income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: NA highest 10%: NA
Inflation
rate (consumer prices):
developed countries 1% to 4% typically; developing countries 5%
to 60% typically; national inflation rates vary widely in individual
cases, from declining prices in Japan to hyperinflation in several
Third World countries (2003 est.)
Labor
force:
NA
Labor
force - by occupation:
agriculture NA, industry NA, services NA
Unemployment
rate:
30% combined unemployment and underemployment in many non-industrialized
countries; developed countries typically 4%-12% unemployment
Industries:
dominated by the onrush of technology, especially in computers,
robotics, telecommunications, and medicines and medical equipment;
most of these advances take place in OECD nations; only a small
portion of non-OECD countries have succeeded in rapidly adjusting
to these technological forces; the accelerated development of
new industrial (and agricultural) technology is complicating already
grim environmental problems
Industrial
production growth rate:
3% (2002 est.)
Electricity
- production:
14.93 trillion kWh (2001 est.)
Electricity
- consumption:
13.94 trillion kWh (2001 est.)
Oil
- production:
75.34 million bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil
- consumption:
75.81 million bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil
- proved reserves:
1.025 trillion bbl (1 January 2002)
Natural
gas - production:
2.578 trillion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural
gas - consumption:
2.555 trillion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural
gas - exports:
712 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural
gas - imports:
697.5 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural
gas - proved reserves:
161.2 trillion cu m (1 January 2002)
Exports:
$6.421 trillion f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Exports
- commodities:
the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods and services
Exports
- partners:
US 16.4%, Germany 7.9%, China 5.5%, UK 5.1%, France 5.1%, Japan
4.6% (2003 est.)
Imports:
$6.531 trillion f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Imports
- commodities:
the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods and services
Imports
- partners:
US 10.1%, Germany 9.5%, China 7.8%, Japan 6.6%, France 4.8% (2003
est.)
Debt
- external:
$2 trillion for less developed countries (2002 est.)
stretching over 250,000 km, the world's 322 international land
boundaries separate the 192 independent states and 70 dependencies,
areas of special sovereignty, and other miscellaneous entities;
ethnicity, culture, race, religion, and language have divided
states into separate political entities as much as history, physical
terrain, political fiat, or conquest, resulting in sometimes arbitrary
and imposed boundaries; maritime states have claimed limits and
have so far established over 130 maritime boundaries and joint
development zones to allocate ocean resources and to provide for
national security at sea; boundary, borderland/resource, and territorial
disputes vary in intensity from managed or dormant to violent
or militarized; most disputes over the alignment of political
boundaries are confined to short segments and are today less common
and less hostile than borderland, resource, and territorial disputes;
undemarcated, indefinite, porous, and unmanaged boundaries, however,
encourage illegal cross-border activities, uncontrolled migration,
and confrontation; territorial disputes may evolve from historical
and/or cultural claims, or they may be brought on by resource
competition; ethnic clashes continue to be responsible for much
of the territorial fragmentation around the world; disputes over
islands at sea or in rivers frequently form the source of territorial
and boundary conflict; other sources of contention include access
to water and mineral (especially petroleum) resources, fisheries,
and arable land; nonetheless, most nations cooperate to clarify
their international boundaries and to resolve territorial and
resource disputes peacefully; regional discord directly affects
the sustenance and welfare of local populations, often leaving
the world community to cope with resultant refugees, hunger, disease,
impoverishment, deforestation, and desertification
Illicit
drugs:
cocaine: worldwide, coca is grown on an estimated
173,450 hectares-almost exclusively in South America with 70%
in Colombia; potential cocaine production during 2003 is estimated
at 728 metric tons (or 835 metric tons of export quality cocaine);
coca eradication programs continue in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru;
376 metric tons of export quality cocaine are documented to have
been seized in 2003, and 26 metric tons disrupted (jettisoned
or destroyed); consumption of export quality cocaine is estimated
to have been 800 metric tons opiates: cultivation
of opium poppy occurred on an estimated 137,944 hectares in 2003-mostly
in Southwest and Southeast Asia-with 44% in Afghanistan, potentially
produced 3,775 metric tons of opium - which conceivably could
be converted to the equivalent of 429 metric tons of pure heroin;
opium eradication programs have been undertaken in Afghanistan,
Burma, Colombia, Mexico, Pakistan, Thailand, and Vietnam
World Facts 
