Political parties and leaders: This entry includes a listing of significant political organizations and their leaders.
Political pressure groups and leaders: This entry includes a listing of organizations with leaders involved in politics, but not standing for legislative election.
Population: This entry gives an estimate from the US Bureau of the Census based on statistics from population censuses, vital statistics registration systems, or sample surveys pertaining to the recent past and on assumptions about future trends. The total population presents one overall measure of the potential impact of the country on the world and within its region. Note: starting with the 1993 Factbook, demographic estimates for some countries (mostly African) have taken into account the effects of the growing incidence of AIDS infections. These countries are Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Population below poverty line: National estimates of the percentage of the population lying below the poverty line are based on surveys of sub-groups, with the results weighted by the number of people in each group. Definitions of poverty vary considerably among nations. For example, rich nations generally employ more generous standards of poverty than poor nations.
Population growth rate: The average annual percent change in the population, resulting from a surplus (or deficit) of births over deaths and the balance of migrants entering and leaving a country. The rate may be positive or negative. The growth rate is a factor in determining how great a burden would be imposed on a country by the changing needs of its people for infrastructure (e.g., schools, hospitals, housing, roads), resources (e.g., food, water, electricity), and jobs. Rapid population growth can be seen as threatening by neighboring countries.
Ports and harbors: This entry lists the major ports and harbors selected on the basis of overall importance to each country. This is determined by evaluating a number of factors (e.g., dollar value of goods handled, gross tonnage, facilities, military significance).
Radio broadcast stations: This entry includes the total number of AM, FM, and shortwave broadcast stations.
Radios: This entry gives the total number of radio receivers.
Railways: This entry includes the total length of the railway network and component parts by gauge: broad, dual, narrow, standard, and other.
Reference maps: This section includes world, regional, and special or current interest maps.
Religions: This entry includes a rank ordering of religions starting with the largest and sometimes includes the percent of total population.
Sex ratio: This entry includes the number of males for each female in five age groups—at birth, under 15 years, 15–64 years, 65 years and over, and for the total population. Sex ratio at birth has recently emerged as an indicator of certain kinds of sex discrimination in some countries. For instance, high sex ratios at birth in some Asian countries are now attributed to sex-selective abortion and infanticide due to a strong preference for sons. This will affect future marriage patterns and fertility patterns. Eventually it could cause unrest among young adult males who are unable to find partners. The sex ratio at birth for the World is 1.06 (1999 est.).
Suffrage: This entry gives the age at enfranchisement and whether the right to vote is universal or restricted.
Telephone numbers: All telephone numbers in the Factbook consist of the country code in brackets, the city or area code (where required) in parentheses, and the local number. The one component that is not presented is the international access code, which varies from country to country. For example, an international direct dial telephone call placed from the US to Madrid, Spain, would be as follows:
011 [34] (1) 577-xxxx where
011 is the international access code for station-to-station calls
(01 is for calls other than station-to-station calls),
[34] is the country code for Spain,
(1) is the city code for Madrid,
577 is the local exchange, and
xxxx is the local telephone number.
An international direct dial telephone call placed from another country to the US would be as follows:
international access code + [1] (202) 939-xxxx, where
[1] is the country code for the US,
(202) is the area code for Washington, DC,
939 is the local exchange, and
xxxx is the local telephone number.
Telephone system: This entry includes a brief characterization of the system with details on the domestic and international components. The following terms and abbreviations are used throughout the entry:
Arabsat—Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia).
Autodin—Automatic Digital Network (US Department of
Defense).
CB—citizen's band mobile radio communications.
cellular telephone system—the telephones in this system are radio
transceivers, with each instrument having its own private radio frequency and sufficient radiated power to reach the booster station in its area (cell), from which the telephone signal is fed to a regular telephone exchange.
Central American Microwave System—a trunk microwave radio relay system that links the countries of Central America and Mexico with each other.
coaxial cable—a multichannel communication cable consisting of a central conducting wire, surrounded by and insulated from a cylindrical conducting shell; a large number of telephone channels can be made available within the insulated space by the use of a large number of carrier frequencies.
Comsat—Communications Satellite Corporation (US).
DSN—Defense Switched Network (formerly Automatic Voice Network or Autovon); basic general-purpose, switched voice network of the Defense Communications System (US Department of Defense).
Eutelsat—European Telecommunications Satellite Organization
(Paris).
fiber-optic cable—a multichannel communications cable using a thread of optical glass fibers as a transmission medium in which the signal (voice, video, etc.) is in the form of a coded pulse of light.
HF—high-frequency; any radio frequency in the 3,000- to 30,000-kHz range.
Inmarsat—International Mobile Satellite Organization (London); provider of global mobile satellite communications for commercial, distress, and safety applications at sea, in the air, and on land.
Intelsat—International Telecommunications Satellite
