A Profile of the World, 2016

Updated September 9, 2022 | Infoplease Staff

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: 10.43%. Permanent crops: 1.15%. Other: 88.42%(2011 est.). Irrigated land: 3,096,621.45 sq km.

See also Atlas of the World.

People

• Population: 7,323,187,457 (July 2016 est.).
• Growth rate: 1.06% (2016 est.).
• Birth rate: 18.5 births/1,000 population (2016 est.).
• Death rate: 7.8 deaths/1,000 population (2016 est.).
• Sex ratio (at birth): 1.03 males/females (2016 est.).
• Infant mortality rate: 34.1 deaths/1,000 live births (2016 est.).
• Life expectancy at birth: Total population: 69 years. Male: 67 years. Female: 71.1 years (2016 est.).
• Total fertility rate: 2.42 children born per woman (2016 est.).
• Literacy: Age 15 and over who can read and write (2012 est.). Total population:86.1%. Male: 89.9%. Female: 82.2% NOTE: more than three-quarters of the world's 781 million illiterate adults are found in South and West Asia and sub-Saharan Africa; of all the illiterate adults in the world, almost two-thirds are women (2012)

Government and Economy

• Political divisions: 195 sovereign nations, 72 dependent areas, and other entities.
• GWP/PPP: $114.2 trillion (2015 est.).
• GWP—real growth rate: 3% (2015 est.).
• GWP/PPP—per capita: 15,700 (2014 est.).
• GWP composition: agriculture 6.4%, industry 30.4%, services 62.6% (2015 est.).
• Inflation rate (consumer price index): world average 3.6% (2015 est.); developed countries: 5.4%; developing countries: 5.7% (2015 est.).
• Unemployment rate: 8.3% (2015 est.).
• Exports: $16.3 trillion (2015 est.).
• Imports: $15.97 trillion (2015 est.).
• External debt: $76.92 trillion (2015 est.)