inclusion does not necessarily constitute official acceptance or recognition by the US Government.
Irrigated land: The figure refers to the land area that is artificially supplied with water.
Land use: Human use of the land surface is categorized as arable land—land cultivated for crops that are replanted after each harvest (wheat, maize, rice); permanent crops—land cultivated for crops that are not replanted after each harvest (citrus, coffee, rubber); meadows and pastures—land permanently used for herbaceous forage crops; forest and woodland—under dense or open stands of trees; and other—any land type not specifically mentioned above (urban areas, roads, desert).
Leaders: The chief of state is the titular leader of the country who represents the state at official and ceremonial functions but is not involved with the day- to-day activities of the government. The head of government is the administrative leader who manages the day-to-day activities of the government. In the UK, the monarch is the chief of state, and the Prime Minister is the head of government. In the US, the President is both the chief of state and the head of government.
Life expectancy at birth: The average number of years to be lived by a group of people all born in the same year, if mortality at each age remains constant in the future.
Literacy: There are no universal definitions and standards of literacy. Unless otherwise noted, all rates are based on the most common definition—the ability to read and write at a specified age. Detailing the standards that individual countries use to assess the ability to read and write is beyond the scope of this publication.
Maritime claims: The proximity of neighboring states may prevent some national claims from being extended the full distance.
Merchant marine: All ships engaged in the carriage of goods. All commercial vessels (as opposed to all nonmilitary ships), which excludes tugs, fishing vessels, offshore oil rigs, etc.; also, a grouping of merchant ships by nationality or register.
Captive register—A register of ships maintained by a territory, possession, or colony primarily or exclusively for the use of ships owned in the parent country; also referred to as an offshore register, the offshore equivalent of an internal register. Ships on a captive register will fly the same flag as the parent country, or a local variant of it, but will be subject to the maritime laws and taxation rules of the offshore territory. Although the nature of a captive register makes it especially desirable for ships owned in the parent country, just as in the internal register, the ships may also be owned abroad. The captive register then acts as a flag of convenience register, except that it is not the register of an independent state.
Flag of convenience register—A national register offering registration to a merchant ship not owned in the flag state. The major flags of convenience (FOC) attract ships to their register by virtue of low fees, low or nonexistent taxation of profits, and liberal manning requirements. True FOC registers are characterized by having relatively few of the ships registered actually owned in the flag state. Thus, while virtually any flag can be used for ships under a given set of circumstances, an FOC register is one where the majority of the merchant fleet is owned abroad. It is also referred to as an open register.
Flag state—The nation in which a ship is registered and which holds legal jurisdiction over operation of the ship, whether at home or abroad. Differences in flag state maritime legislation determine how a ship is manned and taxed and whether a foreign-owned ship may be placed on the register.
Internal register—A register of ships maintained as a subset of a national register. Ships on the internal register fly the national flag and have that nationality but are subject to a separate set of maritime rules from those on the main national register. These differences usually include lower taxation of profits, manning by foreign nationals, and, usually, ownership outside the flag state (when it functions as an FOC register). The Norwegian International Ship Register and Danish International Ship Register are the most notable examples of an internal register. Both have been instrumental in stemming flight from the national flag to flags of convenience and in attracting foreign owned ships to the Norwegian and Danish flags.
Merchant ship—A vessel that carries goods against payment of freight; commonly used to denote any nonmilitary ship but accurately restricted to commercial vessels only.
Register—The record of a ship's ownership and nationality as listed with the maritime authorities of a country; also, the compendium of such individual ships' registrations. Registration of a ship provides it with a nationality and makes it subject to the laws of the country in which registered (the flag state) regardless of the nationality of the ship's ultimate owner.
Money figures: All money figures are expressed in contemporaneous US dollars unless otherwise indicated.
National product: The total output of goods and services in a country in a given year. See Gross domestic product (GDP), Gross national product (GNP), and GNP/GDP methodology.
Net migration rate: The balance between the number of persons entering and leaving a country during the year per 1,000 persons (based on midyear population). An excess of persons entering the country is referred to as net immigration (3.56 migrants/1,000 population); an excess of persons leaving the country as net emigration (-9.26 migrants/1,000 population).
Population: Figures are estimates from the 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. 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; in 1993 these countries were Burkina, Burundi, Central African Republic, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Haiti, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zaire, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Thailand, and Brazil.
Total fertility rate: The average number of children that would be born per woman if all women lived to the end of their childbearing years and bore children according to a given fertility rate at each age.
Years: All year references are for the calendar year (CY) unless indicated as fiscal year (FY).
Note: Information for the US and US dependencies was compiled from material in the public domain and does not represent Intelligence Community estimates. The Handbook of International Economic Statistics, published annually in September by the Central Intelligence Agency, contains detailed economic information for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, Eastern Europe, the newly independent republics of the former nations of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, and selected other countries. The Handbook can be obtained wherever The World Factbook is available.
***THE WORLD FACTBOOK 1994
@Afghanistan, Geography
Location:
Southern Asia, between Iran and Pakistan
Map references:
Asia, Middle East, Standard Time Zones of the World
Area:
total area:
647,500 sq km
land area:
647,500 sq km
comparative area:
slightly smaller than Texas
Land boundaries:
total 5,529
