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World
Facts
"World
Facts"
Facts
and Information about Countries of the world
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Facts
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.
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:
Area, Comparatives, Land Boundries, Coastlines, Maritime Claims, Climate,
Terrian, Elevation Extremes, Natural Resources, Land Use, Irrigated Land,
Natural Hazards, Environmental Issues.
People and Population:
Population,
Age Structure, Median Age, Population Growth Rate, Birth Rate, Death Rate,
Sex Ratios, Infant Mortality Rate, Life expectancy at birth, Total fertility
rate, Religions, Languages, Literacy.
Governments:
Administrative
divisions and the Legal System.
Economy: Overview,
GWP (gross world product), GDP (purchasing power parity), real growth rate,
GDP Per Capita, GDP composition by sector, Labor force - by occupation,
Unemployment Rate, Household income or consumption by percentage share,
Inflation Rate (consumer prices), Industries, Industrial production growth
rate, Electricity; production, consumption, exports, imports, Oil; production,
consumption, proved reserves, Natural Gas; production, consumption, proved
reserves, imports, exports, Exports, commodities, Import partners, Economic
aid - recipient, external dept.
Communications:
Telephones - main lines in use, Radio broadcast stations, Internet users.
Transportation: Railways,Highways,
Waterways, Merchant marine, Airports and Airlines. |
Click Here to Enlarge World Map
Regional Facts
Africa
Facts
Asia
Facts
Australasia
Facts
Caribbean
Facts
Central
America Facts
Europe
Facts
North
America Facts
South
America Facts
See Also
Internet
Country Codes
Library
of Congress Country Studies (USA)
CIA
World Factbook
Internet
Portal
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Map references:
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Physical Map of the World,
Political Map of the World, Standard Time Zones of the World |
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Area:
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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 |
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Area - comparative:
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land area about 16 times the
size of the US |
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Land boundaries:
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the land boundaries in the
world total 250,472 km (not counting shared boundaries twice); two nations,
China and Russia, each border 14 other countries
note: 43 nations and other areas are landlocked, these include:
Afghanistan, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bhutan, Bolivia,
Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Czech
Republic, Ethiopia, Holy See (Vatican City), Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Laos, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malawi, Mali, Moldova,
Mongolia, Nepal, Niger, Paraguay, Rwanda, San Marino, Slovakia, Swaziland,
Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, West Bank, Zambia,
Zimbabwe; two of these, Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan, are doubly landlocked |
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Coastline:
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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 |
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Maritime claims:
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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 |
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Climate:
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two large areas of polar climates
separated by two rather narrow temperate zones form a wide equatorial band
of tropical to subtropical climates |
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Terrain:
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the greatest ocean depth is
the Mariana Trench at 10,924 m in the Pacific Ocean |
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Elevation extremes:
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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 |
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Natural resources:
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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 |
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Land use:
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arable land: 10.73%
permanent crops: 1%
other: 88.27% (2001) |
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Irrigated land:
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2,714,320 sq km (1998 est.) |
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Natural hazards:
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large areas subject to severe
weather (tropical cyclones), natural disasters (earthquakes, landslides,
tsunamis, volcanic eruptions) |
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Environment - current issues:
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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 |
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Geography - note:
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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 |
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Population:
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6,446,131,400 (July 2005 est.) |
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Age structure:
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0-14 years: 27.8% (male
919,726,623; female 870,468,158)
15-64 years: 64.9% (male 2,117,230,183; female 2,066,864,970)
65 years and over: 7.3% (male 207,903,775; female 263,627,270)
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 (2005 est.) |
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Median age:
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total: 27.6 years
male: 27 years
female: 28.2 years (2005 est.) |
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Population growth rate:
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1.14% (2005 est.) |
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Birth rate:
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20.15 births/1,000 population
(2005 est.) |
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Death rate:
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8.78 deaths/1,000 population
(2005 est.) |
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Sex ratio:
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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 (2005 est.) |
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Infant mortality rate:
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total: 50.11 deaths/1,000
live births
male: 52.1 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 48.01 deaths/1,000 live births (2005 est.) |
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Life expectancy at birth:
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total population: 64.33
years
male: 62.73 years
female: 66.04 years (2005 est.) |
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Total fertility rate:
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2.6 children born/woman (2005
est.) |
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Religions:
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Christians 32.84% (of which
Roman Catholics 17.34%, Protestants 5.78%, Orthodox 3.44%, Anglicans 1.27%),
Muslims 19.9%, Hindus 13.29%, Buddhists 5.92%, Sikhs 0.39%, Jews 0.23%,
other religions 12.63%, non-religious 12.44%, atheists 2.36% (2003 est.) |
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Languages:
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Chinese, Mandarin 13.69%,
Spanish 5.05%, English 4.84%, Hindi 2.82%, Portuguese 2.77%, Bengali 2.68%,
Russian 2.27%, Japanese 1.99%, German, Standard 1.49%, Chinese, Wu 1.21%
(2004 est.)
note: percents are for "first language" speakers only |
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Literacy:
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definition: age 15
and over can read and write
total population: 82%
male: 87%
female: 77%
note: over two-thirds of the world's 785 million illiterate
adults are found in only eight countries (India, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan,
Nigeria, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Egypt); of all the illiterate adults
in the world, two-thirds are women; extremely low literacy rates are concentrated
in three regions, South and West Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Arab
states, where around one-third of the men and half of all women are illiterate
(2005 est.) |
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Administrative divisions:
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271 nations, dependent areas,
and other entities |
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Legal system:
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all members of the UN are
parties to the statute that established the International Court of Justice
(ICJ) or World Court |
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Economy - overview:
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Global
output rose by 4.9% in 2004, led by China (9.1%), Russia (6.7%), and India
(6.2%). The other 14 successor nations of the USSR and the other old Warsaw
Pact nations again experienced widely divergent growth rates; the three
Baltic nations continued as strong performers, in the 7% range of growth.
Growth results posted by the major industrial countries varied from a small
gain in Italy (1.3%) to a strong gain by the United States (4.4%). The
developing nations also varied in their growth results, with many countries
facing population increases that erode gains in output. Externally, the
nation-state, as a bedrock economic-political institution, is steadily
losing control over international flows of people, goods, funds, and technology.
Internally, the central government often finds its control over resources
slipping as separatist regional movements - typically based on ethnicity
- gain momentum, e.g., in many of the successor states of the former Soviet
Union, in the former Yugoslavia, in India, in Iraq, in Indonesia, and in
Canada. Externally, the central government is losing decisionmaking powers
to international bodies, notably the European Union. In Western Europe,
governments face the difficult political problem of channeling resources
away from welfare programs in order to increase investment and strengthen
incentives to seek employment. The addition of 75 million people each year
to an already overcrowded globe is exacerbating the problems of pollution,
desertification, underemployment, epidemics, and famine. Because of their
own internal problems and priorities, the industrialized countries devote
insufficient resources to deal effectively with the poorer areas of the
world, which, at least from an economic point of view, are becoming further
marginalized. The introduction of the euro as the common currency of much
of Western Europe in January 1999, while paving the way for an integrated
economic powerhouse, poses economic risks because of varying levels of
income and cultural and political differences among the participating nations.
The terrorist attacks on the US on 11 September 2001 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 continued into 2005. |
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GDP (purchasing power parity):
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GWP (gross world product)
- purchasing power parity - $55.5 trillion (2004 est.) |
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GDP - real growth rate:
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4.9% (2004 est.) |
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GDP - per capita:
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purchasing power parity -
$8,800 (2004 est.) |
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GDP - composition by sector:
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agriculture: 4%
industry: 32%
services: 64% (2004 est.) |
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Labor force - by occupation:
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agriculture NA%, industry
NA%, services NA% |
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Unemployment rate:
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30% combined unemployment
and underemployment in many non-industrialized countries; developed countries
typically 4%-12% unemployment |
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Household income or consumption by percentage share:
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lowest 10%: NA %
highest 10%: NA % |
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Inflation rate (consumer prices):
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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 (2004 est.) |
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Industries:
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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 |
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Industrial production growth rate:
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3% (2003 est.) |
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Electricity - production:
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15.29 trillion kWh (2002 est.) |
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Electricity - consumption:
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14.28 trillion kWh (2002 est.) |
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Electricity - exports:
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500.8 billion kWh (2002 est.) |
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Electricity - imports:
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497.6 billion kWh (2002 est.) |
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Oil - production:
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76.01 million bbl/day (2001
est.) |
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Oil - consumption:
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77.04 million bbl/day (2001
est.) |
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Oil - proved reserves:
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1.025 trillion bbl (1 January
2002 est.) |
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Natural gas - production:
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2.637 trillion cu m (2001
est.) |
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Natural gas - consumption:
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2.599 trillion cu m (2001
est.) |
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Natural gas - exports:
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693.7 billion cu m (2001 est.) |
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Natural gas - imports:
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718.7 billion cu m (2001 est.) |
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Natural gas - proved reserves:
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161.2 trillion cu m (1 January
2002) |
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Exports:
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$8.819 trillion f.o.b. (2003
est.) |
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Exports - commodities:
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the whole range of industrial
and agricultural goods and services |
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Exports - partners:
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US 15.7%, Germany 7.7%, China
5.4%, France 5.1%, UK 5.1%, Japan 4.5% (2004) |
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Imports:
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$8.754 trillion f.o.b. (2003
est.) |
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Imports - commodities:
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the whole range of industrial
and agricultural goods and services |
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Imports - partners:
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Germany 9.4%, US 9.3%, China
8.5%, Japan 6.5%, France 4.5% (2004) |
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Debt - external:
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$12.7 trillion (2004 est.) |
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Economic aid - recipient:
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$154 billion official development
assistance (ODA) (2004) |
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Telephones - main lines in use:
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843,923,500 (2003) |
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Radio broadcast stations:
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AM NA, FM NA, shortwave NA |
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Television broadcast stations:
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NA |
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Internet users:
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604,111,719 (2002 est.) |
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Railways:
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total: 1,115,205 km
broad gauge: 257,481 km
standard gauge: 671,413 km
narrow gauge: 186,311 km (2003) |
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Highways:
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total: 32,345,165 km
paved: 19,403,061 km
unpaved: 12,942,104 km (2002) |
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Waterways:
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671,886 km (2004) |
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Merchant marine:
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total ships: 30,936
(2005) |
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49,973 (2004) |
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