the number of males and females age 15-49 fit for military
service. This is a more refined measure of potential
military manpower availability which tries to correct for
the health situation in the country and reduces the maximum
potential number to a more realistic estimate of the actual
number fit to serve.
Military manpower--military age: This entry gives the minimum
age at which an individual may volunteer for military
service or be subject to conscription.
Military manpower--reaching military age annually: This entry
gives the number of draft-age males and females entering the
military manpower pool in any given year and is a measure of
the availability of draft-age young adults.
Military--note: This entry includes miscellaneous military
information of significance not included elsewhere.
Money figures: All money figures are expressed in
contemporaneous US dollars unless otherwise indicated.
National holiday: This entry gives the primary national day
of celebration--usually independence day.
Nationality: This entry provides the identifying terms for
citizens--noun and adjective.
Natural hazards: This entry lists potential natural
disasters.
Natural resources: This entry lists a country's mineral,
petroleum, hydropower, and other resources of commercial
importance.
Net migration rate: This entry includes the figure for the
difference 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 (e.g., 3.56
migrants/1,000 population); an excess of persons leaving the
country as net emigration (e.g., -9.26 migrants/1,000
population). The net migration rate indicates the
contribution of migration to the overall level of population
change. High levels of migration can cause problems such as
increasing unemployment and potential ethnic strife (if
people are coming in) or a reduction in the labor force,
perhaps in certain key sectors (if people are leaving).
People: This category includes the entries dealing with the
characteristics of the people and their society.
People--note: This entry includes miscellaneous demographic
information of significance not included elsewhere.
Personal Names--Capitalization: The Factbook capitalizes the
surname or family name of individuals for the convenience of
our users who are faced with a world of different cultures
and naming conventions. An example would be President SADDAM
Husayn of Iraq. Saddam is his name and Husayn is his
father's name. He may be referred to as President SADDAM
Husayn or President SADDAM, but not President Husayn. The
need for capitalization, bold type, underlining, italics, or
some other indicator of the individual's surname is apparent
in the following examples: MAO Zedong, Fidel CASTRO Ruz,
William Jefferson CLINTON, and TUNKU SALAHUDDIN Abdul Aziz
Shah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Hisammuddin Alam Shah. By knowing
the surname, a short form without all capital letters can be
used with confidence as in President Saddam, President
Castro, Chairman Mao, President Clinton, or Sultan Tunku
Salahuddin. The same system of capitalization is extended to
the names of leaders with surnames that are not commonly
used such as Queen ELIZABETH II.
Personal Names--Spelling: The romanization of personal names
in the Factbook normally follows the same transliteration
system used by the US Board on Geographic Names for spelling
place names. At times, however, a foreign leader expressly
indicates a preference for, or the media or official
documents regularly use, a romanized spelling that differs
from the transliteration derived from the US Government
standard. In such cases, the Factbook uses the alternative
spelling.
Personal Names--Titles: The Factbook capitalizes any valid
title (or short form of it) immediately preceding a person's
name. A title standing alone is lowercased. Examples:
President YEL'TSIN and President CLINTON are chiefs of
state. In Russia, the president is chief of state and the
premier is the head of the government, while in the US, the
president is both chief of state and head of government.
Pipelines: This entry gives the lengths and types of
pipelines for transporting products like natural gas, crude
oil, or petroleum products.
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
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.
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 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: This entry gives the total number of
subscribers.
Television--broadcast stations: This entry gives the total
number of separate broadcast stations plus any repeater
stations.
Televisions: This entry gives the total number of television
sets.
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.
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 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 growth in the country. High rates
will also place some limits on the labor force participation
rates for women. Large numbers of children born to women
indicate large family sizes that might limit the ability of
the families to feed and educate their children.
Transnational Issues: This category includes only two
entries at the present time --Disputes--international 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.
Unemployment rate: This entry contains the percent of the
labor force that is without jobs. Substantial
underemployment might be noted.
United Nations System: This information is presented in
Appendix B: United Nations System as a chart, table, or text
(depending on the version of the Factbook) that shows the
organization of the UN in detail.
Waterways: This entry gives the total length and individual
names of navigable rivers, canals, and other inland bodies
of water.
Weights and measures: This information is presented in
Appendix E: 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. FY93/94 refers
to the fiscal year that began in calendar year 1993 and
ended in calendar year 1994.
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, the
successor nations to the Soviet Union, and selected other
countries. The Handbook can be obtained wherever the
Factbook is available.
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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 governmentwide 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
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 war.
"The conduct of peace involves all countries, all human activities--not
just the enemy and his war production."