Introduction

Global 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

Area: Total:   510.072 million sq km
         Land:  148.94 million sq km
         Water:  361.132 million sq km
Comparative Land Area: about 16 times the size of the U.S.

Administrative Divisions: 271 nations, dependent areas, and other entities (192 independent states, 73 dependencies, 6 other entities)

Islands: 98 nations and other entities are islands that border no other countries.

Maritime Claims & Boundaries: In general, as per 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

Elevation Extremes on Land and Oceanic Depth:
Highest: Mount Everest 8,850 m
Lowest: Bentley Subglacial Trench -2,540 m
Lowest Oceanic Depth: Mariana Trench - 10,924 m (in the Pacific Ocean)

Environment - current issues: 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.

Age of the World: 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

People

Population: 6,446,131,400 (July 2005 est.)

Age Structure (2005 figures):
0-14 years: 27.8%
15-64 years: 64.9%
65 + years: 7.3%

Median Age:
Total: 27.6 years
Male: 27 years
Female: 28.2 years

Sex Ratio: 1.01 male(s)/female

Life Expectancy At Birth:
Total population: 64.33 years
Male: 62.73 years
Female: 66.04 years (2005 est.)

Population Growth: 1.14% (2005 est.)

Religions:
Christians 33.03% (of which Roman Catholics 17.33%, Protestants 5.8%, Orthodox 3.42%, Anglicans 1.23%),
Muslims 20.12%,
Hindus 13.34%,
Buddhists 5.89%,
Sikhs 0.39%,
Jews 0.23%,
other religions 12.61%,
nonreligious 12.03%,
atheists 2.36% (2004 est.)

Languages:
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

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 (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 onethird of the men and half of all women are illiterate (2005 est.)

Telephones - main lines in use: 843,923,500 (2003)

Internet users: 604,111,719 (2002 est.)

International Disputes:
Stretching over 250,000 km, the world's 325 international land boundaries separate the 192 independent states and 73 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