The World

Introduction

   World

Background:

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

Geography

   World

Area:

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

Area - comparative:

land area about 16 times the size of the US
top fifteen entities ranked by size: Pacific Ocean 155.557 million sq km; Atlantic Ocean 76.762 million sq km; Indian Ocean 68.556 million sq km; Southern Ocean 20.327 million sq km; Russia 17,098,242 sq km; Arctic Ocean 14.056 million sq km; Antarctica 14 million sq km; Canada 9,984,670 sq km; United States 9,826,675 sq km; China 9,596,961 sq km; Brazil 8,514,877 sq km; Australia 7,741,220 sq km; European Union 4,324,782 sq km; India 3,287,263 sq km; Argentina 2,780,400 sq km
top ten largest islands: Greenland 2,166,086 sq km; New Guinea (Indonesia, Papua New Guinea) 785,753 sq km; Borneo (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia) 751,929 sq km; Madagascar 587,713 sq km; Baffin Island (Canada) 507,451 sq km; Sumatra (Indonesia) 472,784 sq km; Honshu (Japan) 227,963 sq km; Victoria Island (Canada) 217,291 sq km; Great Britain (United Kingdom) 209,331 sq km; Ellesmere Island (Canada) 196,236 sq km

Land boundaries:

the land boundaries in the world total 251,060 km (not counting shared boundaries twice); two nations, China and Russia, each border 14 other countries
note: 45 nations and other areas are landlocked, these include: Afghanistan, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Czech Republic, Ethiopia, Holy See (Vatican City), Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malawi, Mali, Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal, Niger, Paraguay, Rwanda, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Swaziland, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, West Bank, Zambia, Zimbabwe; two of these, Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan, are doubly landlocked

Coastline:

356,000 km
note: 95 nations and other entities are islands that border no other countries, they include: American Samoa, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Ashmore and Cartier Islands, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Baker Island, Barbados, Bermuda, Bouvet Island, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Christmas Island, Clipperton Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Comoros, Cook Islands, Coral Sea Islands, Cuba, Curacao, Cyprus, Dominica, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Faroe Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, French Southern and Antarctic Lands, Greenland, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Howland Island, Iceland, Isle of Man, Jamaica, Jan Mayen, Japan, Jarvis Island, Jersey, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Kiribati, Madagascar, Maldives, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Federated States of Micronesia, Midway Islands, Montserrat, Nauru, Navassa Island, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Palmyra Atoll, Paracel Islands, Philippines, Pitcairn Islands, Puerto Rico, Reunion, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Spratly Islands, Sri Lanka, Svalbard, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Virgin Islands, Wake Island, Wallis and Futuna, Taiwan

Maritime claims:

a variety of situations exist, but in general, most countries make the following claims measured from the mean low-tide baseline as described in the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea: territorial sea - 12 nm, contiguous zone - 24 nm, and exclusive economic zone - 200 nm; additional zones provide for exploitation of continental shelf resources and an exclusive fishing zone; boundary situations with neighboring states prevent many countries from extending their fishing or economic zones to a full 200 nm

Climate:

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

Terrain:

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

Elevation extremes:

lowest point: Bentley Subglacial Trench -2,555 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
top ten highest mountains (measured from sea level): Mount Everest (Nepal-China) 8,850 m; K2 (Pakistan) 8,611 m; Kanchenjunga (Nepal-India) 8,598 m; Lhotse (Nepal) 8,516 m; Makalu (Nepal-China) 8,463 m; Cho Oyu (Nepal-China) 8,201 m; Dhaulagiri (Nepal) 8,167 m; Manaslu (Nepal) 8,163 m; Nanga Parbat (Pakistan) 8,125 m; Anapurna (Nepal) 8,091 m

Natural resources:

the rapid depletion of nonrenewable mineral resources, the depletion of forest areas and wetlands, the extinction of animal and plant species, and the deterioration in air and water quality (especially in some countries of Eastern Europe, the former USSR, and China) pose serious long-term problems that governments and peoples are only beginning to address

Land use:

arable land: 10.57%
permanent crops: 1.04%
other: 88.39% (2005)

Irrigated land:

2,770,980 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:

large areas subject to severe weather (tropical cyclones); natural disasters (earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions)
volcanism: the world is home to more than 1,500 potentially active volcanoes, with over 500 of these having erupted in historical times; an estimated 500 million people live near these volcanoes; associated dangers include lava flows, lahars (mudflows), pyroclastic flows, ash clouds, ash fall, ballistic projectiles, gas emissions, landslides, earthquakes, and tsunamis; in the 1990s, the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior, created a list of 16 volcanoes worthy of special study because of their great potential for destruction: Avachinsky-Koryaksky (Russia), Colima (Mexico), Etna (Italy), Galeras (Colombia), Mauna Loa (United States), Merapi (Indonesia), Nyiragongo (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Rainier (United States), Sakurajima (Japan), Santa Maria (Guatemala), Santorini (Greece), Taal (Philippines), Teide (Spain), Ulawun (Papua New Guinea), Unzen (Japan), Vesuvius (Italy)

Environment - current issues:

large areas subject to overpopulation, industrial disasters, pollution (air, water, acid rain, toxic substances), loss of vegetation (overgrazing, deforestation, desertification), loss of wildlife, soil degradation, soil depletion, erosion; global warming becoming a greater concern

Geography - note:

the world is now thought to be about 4.55 billion years old, just about one-third of the 13.7-billion-year age estimated for the universe

People

   World

Population:

6,768,181,146 (July 2010 est.)

Age structure:

0-14 years: 27% (male 944,987,919/female 884,268,378)
15-64 years: 65.3% (male 2,234,860,865/female 2,187,838,153)
65 years and over: 7.6% (male 227,164,176/female 289,048,221) (2010 est.)

Median age:

total: 28.4 years
male: 27.7 years
female: 29 years (2009 est.)

Population growth rate:

1.133% (2009 est.)

Birth rate:

19.86 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)

Death rate:

8.37 deaths/1,000 population (2009 est.)

Sex ratio:

at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2009 est.)

Infant mortality rate:

total: 44.13 deaths/1,000 live births
country comparison for the world
male: 46.19 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 41.92 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:

total population: 66.12 years
male: 64.29 years
female: 68.07 years (2009 est.)

Total fertility rate:

2.56 children born/woman (2009 est.)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:

0.8% (2007 est.)
 

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:

33 million (2007 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:

2 million (2007 est.)

Religions:

Christians 33.32% (of which Roman Catholics 16.99%, Protestants 5.78%, Orthodox 3.53%, Anglicans 1.25%), Muslims 21.01%, Hindus 13.26%, Buddhists 5.84%, Sikhs 0.35%, Jews 0.23%, Baha'is 0.12%, other religions 11.78%, non-religious 11.77%, atheists 2.32% (2007 est.)

Languages:

Mandarin Chinese 12.65%, Spanish 4.93%, English 4.91%, Arabic 3.31%, Hindi 2.73%, Bengali 2.71%, Portuguese 2.67%, Russian 2.16%, Japanese 1.83%, Standard German 1.35%, Javanese 1.27% (2008 est.)
note: percents are for "first language" speakers only

Literacy:

definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 82%
male: 87%
female: 77%
note: over two-thirds of the world's 785 million illiterate adults are found in only eight countries (Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Pakistan); of all the illiterate adults in the world, two-thirds are women; extremely low literacy rates are concentrated in three regions, the Arab states, South and West Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa, where around one-third of the men and half of all women are illiterate (2005 est.)

Government

   World

Administrative divisions:

266 nations, dependent areas, and other entities

Legal system:

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

Economy

   World

Economy - overview:

2009 marked the first year in the post-World War II era that global output - and per capita income - declined; output contracted nearly 1% year-over-year, compared with average increases of about 3.5% per year since 1946. And global trade plummeted nearly 25% from 2008's level, the largest single year drop since World War II. Among major countries, the biggest GDP losses occurred in Russia (-7.9%), Mexico (-6.5%), Japan (-5.3%), Italy (-5.1%), Germany (-4.9%), and United Kingdom (-4.9%), while China (+9.1%), India (+7.4%), and Indonesia (+4.5%) recorded the biggest gains. In 2009, global per capita income fell about 2% to US$10,400, as global unemployment rose from just over 7% in 2008 to nearly 9% in 2009 - underemployment, especially in the developing world, remained much higher. Global gross fixed investment fell about 4% year-over-year, or by roughly $800 billion. World trade and financial imbalances unwound: from 2008 to 2009 current account surpluses or deficits fell for 4 out of every 5 countries as lower commodity prices, tighter credit, and, to some degree, greater protectionism reduced demand for traded goods. World external debt dropped more than 6% from the previous year, as new international lending disappeared. The global recession was a result of widespread uncertainties in the financial markets, bank failures, tighter credit, falling home prices, collapsing asset prices, lowered consumer confidence, and the drop in trade. In response to these conditions, many, if not most, countries pursued expansionary monetary and fiscal policies, and attempted to avoid protectionist policies. By the second half of 2009, the global economy appeared to be making halting, but forward steps.
The world economy now faces a major new challenge, together with several long-standing ones. The fiscal stimulus packages put in place in 2009 required most countries to run budget deficits - government balances deteriorated for 14 out of every 15 countries. Treasuries issued new public debt - globally, worth about $4 trillion - to pay for the additional expenditures. To keep interest rates low, many central banks monetized that debt, injecting large sums of money into the economies. In the first half of 2010, excess capacity existed in product markets, and inflation was not an immediate threat. However, when economic activity picks up, central banks will face the difficult task of containing inflation without raising interest rates so high they snuff out further growth.
Long-standing challenges the world faces are several. The addition of 80 million people each year to an already overcrowded globe is exacerbating the problems of underemployment, pollution, waste-disposal, epidemics, water-shortages, famine, over-fishing of oceans, deforestation, desertification, and depletion of non-renewable resources. The nation-state, as a bedrock economic-political institution, is steadily losing control over international flows of people, goods, funds, and technology. Internally, the central government often finds its control over resources slipping as separatist regional movements - typically based on ethnicity - gain momentum, e.g., in many of the successor states of the former Soviet Union, in the former Yugoslavia, in India, in Iraq, in Indonesia, and in Canada. Externally, the central government is losing decisionmaking powers to international bodies, most notably the EU. 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 the participating nations are culturally and politically diverse and have varying levels and rates of growth of income, and hence, differing needs for monetary policy. 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. Because of their own internal problems and priorities, the industrialized countries devote insufficient resources to deal effectively with the poorer areas of the world, which, at least from an economic point of view, are becoming further marginalized. The terrorist attacks on the US on 11 September 2001 accentuated a growing risk to global prosperity, illustrated, for example, by the reallocation of resources away from investment to anti-terrorist programs. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan added new uncertainties to global economic prospects.
Despite these challenges, the world economy also shows great promise. Technology has made possible further advances in all fields, from agriculture, to medicine, alternative energy, metallurgy, and transportation. Improved global communications have greatly reduced the costs of international trade, helping the world gain from the international division of labor, raise living standards, and reduce income disparities among nations. Much of the resilience of the world economy in 2009 resulted from government leaders around the world working in concert to stem the financial onslaught, knowing well the lessons of past economic failures.

GDP (purchasing power parity):

$69.98 trillion (2009 est.)
$70.49 trillion (2008 est.)
$68.59 trillion (2007 est.)
note: data are in 2009 US dollars

GDP (official exchange rate):

GWP (gross world product): $58.15 trillion (2009 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:

-0.7% (2009 est.)
2.8% (2008 est.)
5% (2007 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):

$10,400 (2009 est.)
$10,600 (2008 est.)
$10,400 (2007 est.)
note: data are in 2009 US dollars

GDP - composition by sector:

agriculture: 6%
industry: 30.6%
services: 63.4% (2009 est.)

Labor force:

3.179 billion (2009 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:

agriculture: 37.5%
industry: 22.1%
services: 40.4% (2007 est.)

Unemployment rate:

8.7% (2009 est.)
7.2% (2008 est.)
note: 30% (2007 est.) combined unemployment and underemployment in many non-industrialized countries; developed countries typically 4%-12% unemployment

Household income or consumption by percentage share:

lowest 10%: 2.5%
highest 10%: 29.5% (2003 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):

developed countries 0% to 4% typically; developing countries 5% to 20% typically; national inflation rates vary widely in individual cases; inflation rates have declined for most countries for the last several years, held in check by increasing international competition from several low wage countries and lower oil prices

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:

-2.7% (2009 est.)

Electricity - production:

19.25 trillion kWh (2007 est.)

Electricity - consumption:

17.93 trillion kWh (2007 est.)

Electricity - exports:

615.4 billion kWh (2008 est.)

Electricity - imports:

613.9 billion kWh (2008 est.)

Oil - production:

84.24 million bbl/day (2009 est.)

Oil - consumption:

83.62 million bbl/day (2009 est.)

Oil - proved reserves:

1.378 trillion bbl (1 January 2010 est.)

Natural gas - production:

3.127 trillion cu m (2008 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:

3.073 trillion cu m (2008 est.)

Natural gas - exports:

949.9 billion cu m (2008 est.)

Natural gas - imports:

947.2 billion cu m (2008 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:

187.8 trillion cu m (1 January 2010 est.)

Exports:

$12.4 trillion (2009 est.)
$15.96 trillion (2008 est.)

Exports - commodities:

the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods and services
top ten - share of world trade: electrical machinery, including computers 14.8%; mineral fuels, including oil, coal, gas, and refined products 14.4%; nuclear reactors, boilers, and parts 14.2%; cars, trucks, and buses 8.9%; scientific and precision instruments 3.5%; plastics 3.4%; iron and steel 2.7%; organic chemicals 2.6%; pharmaceutical products 2.6%; diamonds, pearls, and precious stones 1.9%

Exports - partners:

US 12.7%, Germany 7.2%, China 6.4%, France 4.5%, Japan 4.3%, UK 4.2% (2008 est.)

Imports:

$12.29 trillion (2009 est.)
$15.9 trillion (2008 est.)

Imports - commodities:

the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods and services

Imports - partners:

China 10.3%, Germany 8.7%, US 8%, Japan 5% (2008 est.)

Debt - external:

$56.9 trillion (31 December 2009 est.)
$60.83 trillion (31 December 2008 est.)
note: this figure is the sum total of all countries' external debt, both public and private

Communications

   World

Telephones - main lines in use:

1.268 billion (2008)

Telephones - mobile cellular:

4.017 billion (2008)

Internet users:

1.604 billion (2008)

Transportation

   World

Military

   World

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:

roughly 2% of GDP of gross world product (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues

   World