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.
Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad: This entry gives the
cumulative US dollar value of all investments in foreign countries made
directly by residents - primarily companies - of the home country, as
of the end of the time period indicated. Direct investment excludes
investment through purchase of shares.
Stock of direct foreign investment - at home: This entry gives the
cumulative US dollar value of all investments in the home country made
directly by residents - primarily companies - of other countries as of
the end of the time period indicated. Direct investment excludes
investment through purchase of shares.
Stock of domestic credit: This entry is the total quantity of credit,
denominated in the domestic currency, provided by banks to nonbanking
institutions. The national currency units have been converted to US
dollars at the closing exchange rate on the date of the information.
Stock of money: This entry, also known as "M1," comprises the total
quantity of currency in circulation (notes and coins) plus demand
deposits denominated in the national currency, held by nonbank
financial institutions, state and local governments, nonfinancial
public enterprises, and the private sector of the economy. The national
currency units have been converted to US dollars at the closing
exchange rate on the date of the information.
Stock of quasi money: This entry comprises the total quantity of time
and savings deposits denominated in the national currency, held by
nonbank financial institutions, state and local governments,
nonfinancial public enterprises, and the private sector of the economy.
When added together with "M1" the total money supply is known as "M2."
The national currency units have been converted to US dollars at the
closing exchange rate on the date of the information.
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 World 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 general assessment 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 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.
GSM - a global system for mobile (cellular) communications devised by
the Groupe Special Mobile of the pan-European standardization
organization, Conference Europeanne des Posts et Telecommunications
(CEPT) in 1982.
HF - high frequency; any radio frequency in the 3,000- to 30,000-kHz
range.
Inmarsat - International Maritime 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 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; it was initially started in
Morocco in 1970 by the Arab Telecommunications Union (ATU) and was
known at that time as the Middle East Mediterranean Telecommunications
Network.
Microwave radio relay - transmission of long distance telephone calls
and television programs by highly directional radio microwaves that are
received and sent on from one booster station to another on an optical
path.
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.
PanAmSat - PanAmSat Corporation (Greenwich, CT).
SAFE - South African Far East Cable
Satellite communication system - a communication system consisting of
two or more earth stations and at least one satellite that provide 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
transmission) or two-way (telephone channels).
SHF - super high frequency; any radio frequency in the 3,000- to
30,000-MHz range.
Shortwave - radio frequencies (from 1.605 to 30 MHz) that fall above
the commercial broadcast band and are used for communication over long
distances.
Solidaridad - geosynchronous satellites in Mexico's system of
international telecommunications in the Western Hemisphere.
Statsionar - Russia's geostationary system for satellite
telecommunications.
Submarine cable - a cable designed for service under water.
TAT - Trans-Atlantic Telephone; any of a number of high-capacity
submarine coaxial telephone cables linking Europe with North America.
Telefax - facsimile service between subscriber stations via the public
switched telephone network or the international Datel network.
Telegraph - a telecommunications system designed for unmodulated
electric impulse transmission.
Telex - a communication service involving teletypewriters connected by
wire through automatic exchanges.
Tropospheric scatter - a form of microwave radio transmission in which
the troposphere is used to scatter and reflect a fraction of the
incident radio waves back to earth; powerful, highly directional
antennas are used to transmit and receive the microwave signals;
reliable over-the-horizon communications are realized for distances up
to 600 miles in a single hop; additional hops can extend the range of
this system for very long distances.
Trunk network - a network of switching centers, connected by
multichannel trunk lines.
UHF - ultra high frequency; any radio frequency in the 300- to 3,000-
MHz range.
VHF - very high frequency; any radio frequency in the 30- to 300-MHz
range.
Telephones - main lines in use: This entry gives the total number of
main telephone lines in use.
Telephones - mobile cellular: This entry gives the total number of
mobile cellular telephone subscribers.
Television broadcast stations: This entry gives the total number of
separate broadcast stations plus any repeater stations.
Terminology: Due to the highly structured nature of the Factbook
database, some collective generic terms have to be used. For example,
the word Country in the Country name entry refers to a wide variety of
dependencies, areas of special sovereignty, uninhabited islands, and
other entities in addition to the traditional countries or independent
states. Military is also used as an umbrella term for various civil
defense, security, and defense activities in many entries. The
Independence entry includes the usual colonial independence dates and
former ruling states as well as other significant nationhood dates such
as the traditional founding date or the date of unification,
federation, confederation, establishment, or state succession that are
not strictly independence dates. Dependent areas have the nature of
their dependency status noted in this same entry.
Terrain: This entry contains a brief description of the topography.
Time difference: This entry is expressed in The World Factbook in two
ways. First, it is stated as the difference in hours between the
capital of an entity and Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) during
Standard Time. Additionally, the difference in time between the capital
of an entity and that observed in Washington, D.C. is also provided.
Note that the time difference assumes both locations are simultaneously
observing Standard Time or Daylight Saving Time.
Time zones: Ten countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia,
Kazakhstan, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Spain, and the United States)
and the island of Greenland observe more than one official time
depending on the number of designated time zones within their
boundaries. An illustration of time zones throughout the world and
within countries can be seen in the Standard Time Zones of the World
map included in the Reference Maps section of The World Factbook.
Total fertility rate: This entry gives a figure for 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. The total fertility rate (TFR) is a more
direct measure of the level of fertility than the crude birth rate,
since it refers to births per woman. This indicator shows the potential
for population change in the country. A rate of two children per woman
is considered the replacement rate for a population, resulting in
relative stability in terms of total numbers. Rates above two children
indicate populations growing in size and whose median age is declining.
Higher rates may also indicate difficulties for families, in some
situations, to feed and educate their children and for women to enter
the labor force. Rates below two children indicate populations
decreasing in size and growing older. Global fertility rates are in
general decline and this trend is most pronounced in industrialized
countries, especially Western Europe, where populations are projected
to decline dramatically over the next 50 years.
Total renewable water resources: This entry provides the long-term
average water availability for a country in cubic kilometers of
precipitation, recharged ground water, and surface inflows from
surrounding countries. The values have been adjusted to account for
overlap resulting from surface flow recharge of groundwater sources.
Total renewable water resources provides the water total available to a
country but does not include water resource totals that have been
reserved for upstream or downstream countries through international
agreements. Note that these values are averages and do not accurately
reflect the total available in any given year. Annual available
resources can vary greatly due to short-term and long-term climatic and
weather variations.
Trafficking in persons: Trafficking in persons is modern-day slavery,
involving victims who are forced, defrauded, or coerced into labor or
sexual exploitation. The International Labor Organization (ILO), the UN
agency charged with addressing labor standards, employment, and social
protection issues, estimates that 12.3 million people worldwide are
enslaved in forced labor, bonded labor, forced child labor, sexual
servitude, and involuntary servitude at any given time. Human
trafficking is a multi-dimensional threat, depriving people of their
human rights and freedoms, risking global health, promoting social
breakdown, inhibiting development by depriving countries of their human
capital, and helping fuel the growth of organized crime. In 2000, the
US Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA),
reauthorized in 2003 and 2005, which provides tools for the US to
combat trafficking in persons, both domestically and abroad. One of the
law's key components is the creation of the US Department of State's
annual Trafficking in Persons Report, which assesses the government
response (i.e., the current situation) in some 150 countries with a
significant number of victims trafficked across their borders who are
recruited, harbored, transported, provided, or obtained for forced
labor or sexual exploitation. Countries in the annual report are rated
in three tiers, based on government efforts to combat trafficking. The
countries identified in this entry are those listed in the 2007
Trafficking in Persons Report as Tier 2 Watch List or Tier 3 based on
the following tier rating definitions:
Tier 2 Watch List countries do not fully comply with the minimum
standards for the elimination of trafficking but are making significant
efforts to do so, and meet one of the following criteria:
1. they display high or significantly increasing number of victims,
2. they have failed to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat
trafficking in persons, or,
3. they have committed to take action over the next year.
Tier 3 countries neither satisfy the minimum standards for the
elimination of trafficking nor demonstrate a significant effort to do
so. Countries in this tier are subject to potential non-humanitarian
and non-trade sanctions.
Transnational issues: This category includes four entries - Disputes -
international, Refugees and internally displaced persons, Trafficking
in persons, and Illicit drugs - that deal with current issues going
beyond national boundaries.
Transportation: This category includes the entries dealing with the
means for movement of people and goods.
Transportation - note: This entry includes miscellaneous
transportation information of significance not included elsewhere.
UTC (Coordinated Universal Time): See entry for Coordinated Universal
Time.
Unemployment rate: This entry contains the percent of the labor force
that is without jobs. Substantial underemployment might be noted.
Waterways: This entry gives the total length of navigable rivers,
canals, and other inland bodies of water.
Weights and Measures: This information is presented in Appendix G:
Weights and Measures and includes mathematical notations (mathematical
powers and names), metric interrelationships (prefix; symbol; length,
weight, or capacity; area; volume), and standard conversion factors.
Years: All year references are for the calendar year (CY) unless
indicated as fiscal year (FY). The calendar year is an accounting
period of 12 months from 1 January to 31 December. The fiscal year is
an accounting period of 12 months other than 1 January to 31 December.
Note: Information for the US and US dependencies was compiled from
material in the public domain and does not represent Intelligence
Community estimates.
This page was last updated on 18 December 2008
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CIA - The World Factbook -- History
A Brief History of Basic Intelligence and The World Factbook
The Intelligence Cycle is the process by which information is acquired,
converted into intelligence, and made available to policymakers.
Information is raw data from any source, data that may be fragmentary,
contradictory, unreliable, ambiguous, deceptive, or wrong. Intelligence
is information that has been collected, integrated, evaluated,
analyzed, and interpreted. Finished intelligence is the final product
of the Intelligence Cycle ready to be delivered to the policymaker.
The three types of finished intelligence are: basic, current, and
estimative. Basic intelligence provides the fundamental and factual
reference material on a country or issue. Current intelligence reports
on new developments. Estimative intelligence judges probable outcomes.
The three are mutually supportive: basic intelligence is the foundation
on which the other two are constructed; current intelligence
continually updates the inventory of knowledge; and estimative
intelligence revises overall interpretations of country and issue
prospects for guidance of basic and current intelligence. The World
Factbook , The President's Daily Brief , and the National Intelligence
Estimates are examples of the three types of finished intelligence.
The United States has carried on foreign intelligence activities since
the days of George Washington but only since World War II have they
been coordinated on a government-wide basis. Three programs have
highlighted the development of coordinated basic intelligence since
that time: (1 ) the Joint Army Navy Intelligence Studies (JANIS), (2 )
the National Intelligence Survey ( NIS ), and (3) The World Factbook .
During World War II, intelligence consumers realized that the
production of basic intelligence by different components of the US
Government resulted in a great duplication of effort and conflicting
information. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 brought home
to leaders in Congress and the executive branch the need for
integrating departmental reports to national policymakers. Detailed and
coordinated information was needed not only on such major powers as
Germany and Japan , but also on places of little previous interest. In
the Pacific Theater, for example, the Navy and Marines had to launch
amphibious operations against many islands about which information was
unconfirmed or nonexistent. Intelligence authorities resolved that the
United States should never again be caught unprepared.
In 1943, Gen. George B. Strong (G-2), Adm. H. C. Train (Office of Naval
Intelligence--ONI), and Gen. William J. Donovan (Director of the Office
of Strategic Services--OSS ) decided that a joint effort should be
initiated. A steering committee was appointed on 27 April 1943 that
recommended the formation of a Joint Intelligence Study Publishing
Board to assemble, edit, coordinate, and publish the Joint Army Navy
Intelligence Studies (JANIS). JANIS was the first interdepartmental
basic intelligence program to fulfill the needs of the US Government
for an authoritative and coordinated appraisal of strategic basic
intelligence. Between April 1943 and July 1947, the board published 34
JANIS studies. JANIS performed well in the war effort, and numerous
letters of commendation were received, including a statement from Adm.
Forrest Sherman, Chief of Staff, Pacific Ocean Areas, which said,
"JANIS has become the indispensable reference work for the shore-based
planners."
The need for more comprehensive basic intelligence in the postwar world
was well expressed in 1946 by George S. Pettee, a noted author on
national security. He wrote in The Future of American Secret
Intelligence (Infantry Journal Press, 1946, page 46) that world
leadership in peace requires even more elaborate intelligence than in
war. "The conduct of peace involves all countries, all human
activities--not just the enemy and his war production."
The Central Intelligence Agency was established on 26 July 1947 and
officially began operating on 18 September 1947. Effective 1 October
1947, the Director of Central Intelligence assumed operational
responsibility for JANIS. On 13 January 1948, the National Security
Council issued Intelligence Directive (NSCID) No. 3, which authorized
the National Intelligence Survey ( NIS ) program as a peacetime
replacement for the wartime JANIS program. Before adequate NIS country
sections could be produced, government agencies had to develop more
comprehensive gazetteers and better maps. The US Board on Geographic
Names (BGN) compiled the names; the Department of the Interior produced
the gazetteers; and CIA produced the maps.
The Hoover Commission's Clark Committee, set up in 1954 to study the
structure and administration of the CIA, reported to Congress in 1955
that: "The National Intelligence Survey is an invaluable publication
which provides the essential elements of basic intelligence on all
areas of the world. There will always be a continuing requirement for
keeping the Survey up-to-date." The Factbook was created as an annual
summary and update to the encyclopedic NIS studies. The first
classified Factbook was published in August 1962, and the first
unclassified version was published in June 1971. The NIS program was
terminated in 1973 except for the Factbook , map, and gazetteer
components. The 1975 Factbook was the first to be made available to the
public with sales through the US Government Printing Office (GPO). The
Factbook was first made available on the Internet in June 1997. The
year 2008 marks the 61st anniversary of the establishment of the
Central Intelligence Agency and the 65th year of continuous basic
intelligence support to the US Government by The World Factbook and its
two predecessor programs.
The Evolution of The World Factbook
National Basic Intelligence Factbook produced semiannually until 1980.
Country entries include sections on Land, Water, People, Government,
Economy, Communications, and Defense Forces.