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. Also known as growth rate or average annual rate of growth. The growth rate is a factor in determining how rapidly a country responds to the changing needs of its people in terms of infrastructure (e.g., schools, hospitals, housing, roads), resources (e.g., food, water, electricity), and jobs. Rapid population growth can also be seen as threatening by neighboring countries.
Ports and harbors: This entry lists a few 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 and could cause unrest among young adult males who are unable to find partners. The sex ratio at birth for the World is 1.06 (1997 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:
An international direct dial telephone call placed from another country to the US would be as follows:
[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, each instrument having its own private radio frequency with 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
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 and distress and safety applications, at sea, in the air, and on land
Intelsat—International Telecommunications Satellite Organization
(Washington, DC)
Intersputnik—International Organization of Space Communications
(Moscow); first established in the former Soviet Union and the East
European countries, it is now marketing its services worldwide with
earth stations in North America, Africa, and East Asia
landline—communication wire or cable of any sort that is installed on poles or buried in the ground
Marecs—Maritime European Communications Satellite used in the
Inmarsat system on lease from the European Space Agency
Marisat—satellites of the Comsat Corporation that participate in the
Inmarsat system
Medarabtel—the Middle East Telecommunications Project of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), providing a modern telecommunications network, primarily by microwave radio relay, linking Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen (initially started in Morocco in 1970 by the Arab Telecommunications Union (ATU) and known at that time as the Middle East Mediterranean Telecommunications Network)
NMT—Nordic Mobile Telephone; an analog cellular telephone system that was developed jointly by the national telecommunications authorities of the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden)
Orbita—a Russian television service; also the trade name of a packet—switched digital telephone network
radiotelephone communications—the two—way transmission and reception of sounds by broadcast radio on authorized frequencies using telephone handsets
satellite communication system—a communication system consisting of two or more earth stations and at least one satellite that provides long distance transmission of voice, data, and television; the system usually serves as a trunk connection between telephone exchanges; if the earth stations are in the same country, it is a domestic system
satellite earth station—a communications facility with a microwave radio transmitting and receiving antenna and required receiving and transmitting equipment for communicating with satellites
satellite link—a radio connection between a satellite and an earth station permitting communication between them, either one—way (down link from satellite to earth station—television receive—only