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 environmental degradation including deforestation, energy and water shortages, declining 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 1987, 6 billion in 1999, and 7 billion in 2012. For the 21st century, the continued exponential growth in science and technology raises both hopes (e.g., advances in medicine and agriculture) and fears (e.g., development of even more lethal weapons of war).

The surface of the earth is approximately 70.9% water and 29.1% land. The former portion is divided into large water bodies termed oceans. The World Factbook recognizes and describes five oceans, which are in decreasing order of size: the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Southern Ocean, and Arctic Ocean.

The land portion is generally divided into several, large, discrete landmasses termed continents. Depending on the convention used, the number of continents can vary from five to seven. The most common classification recognizes seven, which are (from largest to smallest): Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. Asia and Europe are sometimes lumped together into a Eurasian continent resulting in six continents. Alternatively, North and South America are sometimes grouped as simply the Americas, resulting in a continent total of six (or five, if the Eurasia designation is used).

North America is commonly understood to include the island of Greenland, the isles of the Caribbean, and to extend south all the way to the Isthmus of Panama. The easternmost extent of Europe is generally defined as being the Ural Mountains and the Ural River; on the southeast the Caspian Sea; and on the south the Caucasus Mountains, the Black Sea, and the Mediterranean. Portions of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkey fall within both Europe and Asia, but in every instance the larger section is in Asia. These countries are considered part of both continents. Armenia and Cyprus, which lie completely in Western Asia, are geopolitically European countries.

Asia usually incorporates all the islands of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The islands of the Pacific are often lumped with Australia into a "land mass" termed Oceania or Australasia. Africa's northeast extremity is frequently delimited at the Isthmus of Suez, but for geopolitical purposes, the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula is often included as part of Africa.

Although the above groupings are the most common, different continental dispositions are recognized or taught in certain parts of the world, with some arrangements more heavily based on cultural spheres rather than physical geographic considerations.

Physical Map of the World

land area about 16 times the size of the US

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

356,000 km

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

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

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

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

3,096,621.45 sq km (2011 est.)

53,789.29 cu km (2011)

large areas subject to severe weather (tropical cyclones); natural disasters (earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions)

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

the world is now thought to be about 4.55 billion years old, just about one-third of the 13.8-billion-year age estimated for the universe

Mandarin Chinese 11.82%, Spanish 5.77%, English 4.67%, Hindi 3.62%, Arabic 3.3%, Portuguese 2.83%, Bengali 2.69%, Russian 2.33%, Japanese 1.7%, Javanese 1.15%, Standard German 1.09% (2014 est.)

Christian 33.39% (of which Roman Catholic 16.85%, Protestant 6.15%, Orthodox 3.96%, Anglican 1.26%), Muslim 22.74%, Hindu 13.8%, Buddhist 6.77%, Sikh 0.35%, Jewish 0.22%, Baha'i 0.11%, other religions 10.95%, non-religious 9.66%, atheists 2.01% (2010 est.)

7,256,490,011 (July 2015 est.)

1.06%

18.7 births/1,000 population

7.89 deaths/1,000 population

2.42 children born/woman (2015 est.)

2.9 beds/1,000 population (2005)

urban: 96.5% of population

rural: 84.7% of population

total: 91.1% of population

urban: 3.5% of population

rural: 15.3% of population

total: 8.9% of population (2015 est.)

urban: 82.3% of population

rural: 50.5% of population

total: 67.7% of population

urban: 17.7% of population

rural: 49.5% of population

total: 32.3% of population (2015 est.)

0.8% (2012 est.)

35.3 million (2012 est.)

1.6 million (2012 est.)

195 countries, 72 dependent areas and other entities

the legal systems of nearly all countries are generally modeled upon elements of five main types: civil law (including French law, the Napoleonic Code, Roman law, Roman-Dutch law, and Spanish law); common law (including English and US law); customary law; mixed or pluralistic law; and religious law (including Islamic law); an additional type of legal system - international law - governs the conduct of independent nations in their relationships with one another

all members of the UN are parties to the statute that established the International Court of Justice (ICJ) or World Court; 61 countries have accepted jurisdiction of the ICJ as compulsory with reservations and 11 countries have accepted ICJ jurisdiction as compulsory without reservations; states parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICCt) are those countries that have ratified or acceded to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the Court; a total of 123 (effective 2 January 2015) countries have accepted jurisdiction of the ICCt (see Appendix B for a clarification on the differing mandates of the ICJ and ICCt)

The international financial crisis of 2008-09 led to the first downturn in global output since 1946 and presented the world with a major new challenge: determining what mix of fiscal and monetary policies to follow to restore growth and jobs, while keeping inflation and debt under control. Financial stabilization and stimulus programs that started in 2009-11, combined with lower tax revenues in 2009-10, required most countries to run large budget deficits. Treasuries issued new public debt - totaling $9.1 trillion since 2008 - to pay for the additional expenditures. To keep interest rates low, most central banks monetized that debt, injecting large sums of money into their economies - between December 2008 and December 2013 the global money supply increased by more than 35%. Governments are now faced with the difficult task of spurring current growth and employment without saddling their economies with so much debt that they sacrifice long-term growth and financial stability. When economic activity picks up, central banks will confront the difficult task of containing inflation without raising interest rates so high they snuff out further growth.

Fiscal and monetary data for 2013 are currently available for 180 countries, which together account for 98.5% of World GDP. Of the 180 countries, 82 pursued unequivocally expansionary policies, boosting government spending while also expanding their money supply relatively rapidly - faster than the world average of 3.1%; 28 followed restrictive fiscal and monetary policies, reducing government spending and holding money growth to less than the 3.1% average; and the remaining 70 followed a mix of counterbalancing fiscal and monetary policies, either reducing government spending while accelerating money growth, or boosting spending while curtailing money growth.

(For more information, see attached spreadsheet, Fiscal and Monetary Data, 2008-2012.)

In 2013, for many countries the drive for fiscal austerity that began in 2011 abated. While 5 out of 6 countries slowed spending in 2012, only 1 in 2 countries slowed spending in 2013. About 1 in 3 countries actually lowered the level of their expenditures. The global growth rate for government expenditures increased from 1.6% in 2012 to 5.1% in 2013, after falling from a 10.1% growth rate in 2011. On the other hand, nearly 2 out of 3 central banks tightened monetary policy in 2013, decelerating the rate of growth of their money supply, compared with only 1 out of 3 in 2012. Roughly 1 of 4 central banks actually withdrew money from circulation, an increase from 1 out of 7 in 2012. Growth of the global money supply, as measured by the narrowly defined M1, slowed from 8.7% in 2009 and 10.4% in 2010 to 5.2% in 2011, 4.6% in 2012, and 3.1% in 2013. Several notable shifts occurred in 2013. By cutting government expenditures and expanding money supplies, the US and Canada moved against the trend in the rest of the world. France reversed course completely. Rather than reducing expenditures and money as it had in 2012, it expanded both. Germany reversed its fiscal policy, sharply expanding federal spending, while continuing to grow the money supply. South Korea shifted monetary policy into high gear, while maintaining a strongly expansionary fiscal policy. Japan, however, continued to pursue austere fiscal and monetary policies.

Austere economic policies have significantly affected economic performance. The global budget deficit narrowed to roughly $2.7 trillion in 2012 and $2.1 trillion in 2013, or 3.8% and 2.5% of World GDP, respectively. But growth of the world economy slipped from 5.1% in 2010 and 3.7% in 2011, to just 3.1% in 2012, and 2.9% in 2013.

Countries with expansionary fiscal and monetary policies achieved significantly higher rates of growth, higher growth of tax revenues, and greater success reducing the public debt burden than those countries that chose contractionary policies. In 2013, the 82 countries that followed a pro-growth approach achieved a median GDP growth rate of 4.7%, compared to 1.7% for the 28 countries with restrictive fiscal and monetary policies, a difference of 3 percentage points. Among the 82, China grew 7.7%, Philippines 6.8%, Malaysia 4.7%, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia 3.6%, Argentina 3.5%, South Korea 2.8%, and Russia 1.3%, while among the 28, Brazil grew 2.3%, Japan 2.0%, South Africa 2.0%, Netherlands -0.8%, Croatia -1.0%, Iran -1.5%, Portugal -1.8%, Greece -3.8%, and Cyprus -8.7%.

Faster GDP growth and lower unemployment rates translated into increased tax revenues and a less cumbersome debt burden. Revenues for the 82 expansionary countries grew at a median rate of 10.7%, whereas tax revenues fell at a median rate of 6.8% for the 28 countries that chose austere economic policies. Budget balances improved for about three-quarters of the 28, but, for most, debt grew faster than GDP, and the median level of their public debt as a share of GDP increased 9.1 percentage points, to 59.2%. On the other hand, budget balances deteriorated for most of the 82 pro-growth countries, but GDP growth outpaced increases in debt, and the median level of public debt as a share of GDP increased just 1.9%, to 39.8%.

The world recession has suppressed inflation rates - world inflation declined 1.0 percentage point in 2012 to about 4.1% and 0.2 percentage point to 3.9% in 2013. In 2013 the median inflation rate for the 82 pro-growth countries was 1.3 percentage points higher than that for the countries that followed more austere fiscal and monetary policies. Overall, the latter countries also improved their current account balances by shedding imports; as a result, current account balances deteriorated for most of the countries that pursued pro-growth policies. Slow growth of world income continued to hold import demand in check and crude oil prices fell. Consequently, the dollar value of world trade grew just 1.3% in 2013.

Beyond the current global slowdown, the world faces several long-standing economic challenges. The addition of 80 million people each year to an already overcrowded globe is exacerbating the problems of 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, services, funds, and technology. 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, has created economic risks because the participating nations have varying income levels and growth rates, and hence, require a different mix of monetary and fiscal policies. Governments, especially in Western Europe, 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 are unable to devote sufficient 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 - the diversion of resources away from capital investments to counter-terrorism programs.

Despite these vexing problems, the world economy also shows great promise. Technology has made possible further advances in a wide range of 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 the aftermath of the financial crisis resulted from government and central bank leaders around the globe working in concert to stem the financial onslaught, knowing well the lessons of past economic failures.

$107.5 trillion (2014 est.)

$104.1 trillion (2013 est.)

$100.8 trillion (2012 est.)

GWP (gross world product): $78.28 trillion (2014 est.)

3.3% (2014 est.)

3.2% (2013 est.)

3.1% (2012 est.)

$16,100 (2014 est.)

$15,800 (2013 est.)

$15,500 (2012 est.)

(2011 est.)

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 technologies is complicating already grim environmental problems

3.6% (2014 est.)

3.36 billion (2014 est.)

8.3% (2014 est.)

7.7% (2013 est.)

38 (2009 est.)

37.3 (1999 est.)

28% of GDP (2014 est.)

-2.5% of GDP (2014 est.)

57.7% of GDP (2014 est.)

57.7% of GDP (2013 est.)

world average 4% (2014 est.)

developed countries 1.4% (2014 est.)

developing countries 5.4% (2014 est.)

$28.6 trillion (31 December 2014 est.)

$28.25 trillion (31 December 2013 est.)

$80.45 trillion (31 December 2014 est.)

$76.76 trillion (31 December 2013 est.)

$90.65 trillion (31 December 2014 est.)

$91.08 trillion (31 December 2013 est.)

$59.86 trillion (31 December 2012 est.)

$54.36 trillion (31 December 2011)

$56.6 trillion (31 December 2010 est.)

$19.08 trillion (2014 est.)

$18.72 trillion (2013 est.)

the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods and services

$18.86 trillion (2014 est.)

$18.64 trillion (2013 est.)

the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods and services

$72.87 trillion (31 December 2014 est.)

$68.82 trillion (31 December 2013 est.)

$26.25 trillion (31 December 2014 est.)

$24.37 trillion (31 December 2013 est.)

$27.45 trillion (31 December 2014 est.)

$25.92 trillion (31 December 2013 est.)

22.29 trillion kWh (2011 est.)

20.98 trillion kWh (2011 est.)

639.6 billion kWh (2013 est.)

684.2 billion kWh (2013 est.)

5.752 billion kW (2011 est.)

67.2% of total installed capacity (2011 est.)

7.1% of total installed capacity (2011 est.)

18.2% of total installed capacity (2011 est.)

7.5% of total installed capacity (2011 est.)

85.86 million bbl/day (2013 est.)

42.22 million bbl/day (2010 est.)

47.04 million bbl/day (2010 est.)

1.642 trillion bbl (1 January 2014 est.)

84.52 million bbl/day (2010 est.)

90.05 million bbl/day (2013 est.)

25.19 million bbl/day (2010 est.)

24.28 million bbl/day (2010 est.)

3.488 trillion cu m (2012 est.)

3.408 trillion cu m (2012 est.)

1.146 trillion cu m (2012 est.)

1.442 trillion cu m (2012 est.)

206.4 trillion cu m (1 January 2014 est.)

33.95 billion Mt (2012 est.)

1.1 billion (2014 est.)

total 7 billion (2014 est.)

AM NA, FM NA, shortwave NA

NA

2.8 billion

total airports - 41,821 (2013)

6,524 (2013)

2,293,412 km

the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) reports that 2013 saw a dramatic 40% decrease in global pirate activities reaching the lowest levels in six years; in 2013, pirates attacked a total of 264 ships world-wide including hijacking 12 ships, capturing more than 300 seafarers, and killing one; the Horn of Africa saw the biggest drop in pirate activities with only 15 incidents in 2013 compared with 75 in 2012 and 237 in 2011; the decrease in successful pirate attacks off the Horn of Africa is due, in part, to more aggressive anti-piracy operations by international naval forces, the hardening of vessels, and the increased use of armed security teams aboard merchant ships; attacks in the Straits of Malacca and South China Sea accounted for 50% of ships boarded in 2013; West African piracy is a growing threat accounting for 19% of all attacks in 2013; Nigerian pirates are very aggressive, operating as far as 175 nm offshore and linked with at least five of the seven hijackings that occurred in this area; attacks in South Asian waters remain at low levels although incidents off India have increased each year since 2010 reaching 14 in 2013; as of September 2014, there were 163 attacks worldwide with 17 hijackings most in the Straits of Malacca/South China Sea region and West African waters

2.42% of GDP (2012)

2.51% of GDP (2011)

2.42% of GDP (2010)

stretching over 250,000 km, the world's 325 international land boundaries separate 195 independent states and 71 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; most maritime states have claimed limits that include territorial seas and exclusive economic zones; overlapping limits due to adjacent or opposite coasts create the potential for 430 bilateral maritime boundaries of which 209 have agreements that include contiguous and non-contiguous segments; boundary, borderland/resource, and territorial disputes vary in intensity from managed or dormant to violent or militarized; undemarcated, indefinite, porous, and unmanaged boundaries tend to 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 and cultural clashes continue to be responsible for much of the territorial fragmentation and internal displacement of the estimated 20.8 million people and cross-border displacements of approximately 12.1 million refugees and asylum seekers around the world as of mid-2013; over half a million refugees were repatriated during 2012; other sources of contention include access to water and mineral (especially hydrocarbon) resources, fisheries, and arable land; armed conflict prevails not so much between the uniformed armed forces of independent states as between stateless armed entities that detract from the sustenance and welfare of local populations, leaving the community of nations to cope with resultant refugees, hunger, disease, impoverishment, and environmental degradation

the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that as of the end of 2014 there were 59.5 million people forcibly displaced worldwide; this includes 19.5 million refugees, 1.8 million asylum seekers, and 38.2 million conflict IDPs; the UNHCR estimates there are currently at least 10 million stateless persons (2012)