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World > World Statistics > General World Statistics

A Profile of the World, 2011

Source: The World Factbook, 2011

Geography

Age: 4.55 billion years old.
Total area: 510.072 million sq km (196.940 million sq mi). Land area: 148.94 million sq km (57.506 million sq mi). Water area: 361.132 million sq km (139.434 million sq mi). Coastline: 356,000 km (221,208 mi). Note: 70.9% of the world is water, 29.1% is land.
Land boundaries: 251,060 km (156,262.58 mi.), not counting shared boundaries twice.
Climate: Two large areas of polar climates are separated by two rather narrow temperate zones from a wide equatorial band of tropical to subtropical climates.
Terrain: Highest elevation is Mt. Everest at 8,850 m (29,035 ft) and lowest land depression is the Dead Sea at –411 m (–1,349 ft) below sea level. The greatest ocean depth is the Mariana Trench at –10,924 m (–35,840 ft) in the Pacific Ocean.
Land use: Arable land: 10.57%. Permanent crops: 1.04%. Other: 88.39% (2005 est.). Irrigated land: 2,770,980 sq km (1,721,886 sq mi).

See also Atlas of the World.

People

Population: 6,928,198,253 (July 2011 est.).
Growth rate: 1.09% (2011 est.).
Birth rate: 19.15 births/1,000 population (2011 est.).
Death rate: 8.12 deaths/1,000 population (2011 est.).
Sex ratio (at birth): 1.07 males/females (2011 est.).
Infant mortality rate: 41.61 deaths/1,000 live births (2011 est.).
Life expectancy at birth: Total population: 67.07 years. Male: 65.21 years. Female: 69.05 years (2011 est.).
Total fertility rate: 2.46 children born per woman (2011 est.).
Literacy: Age 15 and over who can read and write (2005 est.). Total population: 83.7%. Male: 88.3%. Female: 79.2% NOTE: More than two-thirds of the world's 793 million illiterate adults are found in only eight countries (Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Pakistan); of all the illiterate adults in the world, two-thirds are women; extremely low literacy rates are concentrated in three regions, the Arab states, South and West Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa, where around one-third of the men and half of all women are illiterate (2005-09 est.)

Government and Economy

Political divisions: 195 sovereign nations, 72 dependent areas, and 6 disputed territories.
Economy: In 2010, world output — and per capita income — began to recover from the 2008–09 recession, the first global downturn since 1946. Gross World Product (GWP) grew 4.9%, largely on the strength of rebounding exports, which rose about 20% from the level of 2009. Growth was not evenly distributed across countries, however. Lower income countries — those with per capita incomes below $30,000 per year — averaged 6.6% growth, while higher income countries — with per capita incomes above $30,000 — averaged just 2.9% growth. And countries with current account surpluses averaged 6.3% growth, while those with current account deficits averaged just 3.4% growth. Among large economies, Taiwan (+10.8%), India (+10.4%), China (+10.3%), Brazil (+7.5%), and South Korea (+6.1%) recorded the biggest GDP gains — China also became the world's largest exporter. Continuing uncertainties in mortgage and financial markets resulted in slower growth in Japan (+3.9%), the US (+2.8%), and the European Union (+1.8%). In 2010, global unemployment continued to creep upwards, reaching 8.8% — underemployment, especially in the developing world, remained much higher.
GWP/PPP: $74.54 trillion (2010 est.).
GWP—real growth rate: 4.9% (2010 est.).
GWP/PPP—per capita: $11,200 (2010 est.).
GWP composition: agriculture 6%, industry 30.9%, services 63.2% (2009 est.).
Inflation rate (consumer price index): developed countries: 2.5%; developing countries: 5.6% (2010 est.). Note: Developed countries 0% to 4% typically; developing countries 5% to 10% typically; national inflation rates vary widely in individual cases; inflation rates have declined for most countries for the last several years, held in check by increasing international competition from several low wage countries, and by soft demand as a result of the world financial crisis.
Unemployment rate: 8.7% (2010 est.).
Exports: $15.18 trillion f.o.b. (2010 est.).
Imports: $14.92 trillion f.o.b. (2010 est.).
External debt: $60.47 trillion (2010 est.)