549 résultats pour "country"
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Tajikistan - country.
by more than 100 percent due to a high birth rate and improvements in medical care. During the early 1990s, however, the growth rate began to decline due to civilwar and emigration. A Ethnic Groups and Languages Tajiks constitute the largest ethnic group in Tajikistan, making up about 65 percent of the population. The peoples who live in Gorno-Badakhshan, located in the Pamirs,are classified as Tajiks, although their languages and customs are distinct. The largest minority group in the country...
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Kyrgyzstan - country.
are Bishkek, the capital, located on the Chu River in the far north; and Osh, located in the Fergana Valley. A Ethnic Groups Ethnic Kyrgyz make up about 65 percent of the population of Kyrgyzstan. Uzbeks, who live primarily in the Fergana Valley, constitute about 14 percent of thepopulation. Russians, who live principally in Bishkek and other industrial centers, make up about 13 percent of the population. Other ethnic groups include Hui (ChineseMuslims, also known as Dungans), Ukrainians, Uygur...
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Thailand - country.
E Natural Resources Thailand possesses a range of mineral resources. Tin is mined in the peninsula. Important gemstones, such as sapphires, are found in the southeast, and coal reserves,particularly lignite, are in the north. Fish are abundant in rivers and coastal waters. In addition to being consumed domestically, fish are also exported. F Climate Thailand experiences a typical monsoon climate. Winds blow from the northeast during the winter months of October to March or April (known as the...
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Argentina - country.
Patagonia lies in the rain shadow of the Andes and so receives little moisture. As a result it is used primarily for grazing sheep, although some crops are grown on smallfarms in irrigated valleys. Several major oil fields also are in Patagonia. At the southern tip of Patagonia is Tierra del Fuego, a large mountainous island shared byArgentina and Chile. B Rivers and Lakes Most of Argentina’s rivers empty into the Atlantic Ocean. Three rivers—the Paraná, Paraguay, and Uruguay—flow generally sou...
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Haiti - country.
Haitian Creole and French are the official languages of Haiti. Haitian Creole, a French-based Creole with influences from West African languages, was made an officiallanguage under the 1987 constitution. It is the mother tongue for nearly the entire population of Haiti and the language of instruction in schools. French is spokenmainly as a second language by a small section of the population. B Religion About 80 percent of Haiti’s people are nominal Roman Catholics, many of them combining an Af...
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Kenya - country.
threatens fish and other water life in the lake by depriving them of oxygen. Kenya is well known for its game parks—including Masai Mara Game Park and Tsavo National Park in the south, and Marsabit National Reserve in the north—whichattract large numbers of tourists and much revenue. Conservation of wildlife within reserves has thus received high priority. About 13 percent (2007) of Kenya’s totalland is protected. There are 229 (2004) threatened species in Kenya. Threatened habitats include the...
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Switzerland - country.
formation over higher elevations. The wind reverses direction about sundown and moves down the valley as a cool downdraft. The foehn, which occurs during the wintermonths, is a dry and relatively warm airflow that is drawn northward over the Alps. The foehn can quickly melt snow and ice, increasing the risk of mudslides andavalanches. D Natural Resources Waterpower is the chief natural resource of Switzerland. The principal source of water is runoff from the considerable annual precipitation th...
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Sweden - country.
mi) and is Sweden’s second largest lake, after Vänern. The two lakes, together with several smaller lakes, rivers, and canals, form an internal water route called theGöta Canal. Built in the early 19th century, the Göta Canal extends for about 386 km (about 240 mi) and provides a scenic transportation link between the Baltic Sea,at Stockholm, and the Kattegat. Sweden’s other large lakes in the district include Mälaren, Hjälmaren, and the famously picturesque Siljan. D Climate Although one-seven...
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Egypt - country.
Egypt has a wide variety of mineral deposits, some of which, such as gold and red granite, have been exploited since ancient times. The chief mineral resource ofcontemporary value is petroleum, found mainly in the Red Sea coastal region, at Al ‘Alamayn (El ‘Alamein) on the Mediterranean, and on the Sinai Peninsula. Otherminerals include phosphates, manganese, iron ore, and uranium. Natural gas is also extracted. D Plants and Animals The vegetation of Egypt is confined largely to the Nile Delta,...
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Brazil - country.
occasional droughts. Brazil contains a wealth of mineral and plant resources that have not yet been fully explored. It possesses some of the world’s largest deposits of iron ore and containsrich deposits of many other minerals, including gold and copper. Brazil’s fossil fuel resources are modest, but this limitation is offset by the considerable hydroelectricpotential of the nation’s many rivers. Although Brazil is an important producer of tropical crops, areas of highly fertile land are limited...
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Togo - country.
corn, millet, and sorghum. The leading export crops are coffee, cotton, groundnuts, and cacao. Livestock, chiefly sheep and goats, are raised on the northern plateau.Fish are caught in Togo’s rivers and in the Gulf of Guinea. B Mining and Manufacturing Togo is a leading producer of phosphates, which are by far the country’s most significant mineral product. In 2004, 400,000 metric tons of phosphate rock were mined.Industrial activity is limited but growing. The leading manufactures include ceme...
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Tunisia - country.
mixture of Berber and Arab stock, and they regard themselves as Arabs. Nearly everyone speaks Arabic. The population of Tunisia is concentrated in the coastal plain. It is fairly dense in the hilly north, but the arid plateau, basin, and south are thinly settled. About two-thirds of the country’s people live in urban areas. A Principal Cities The capital and largest city of Tunisia is the seaport of Tunis. Other important cities include Sfax, a port and center of trade on the eastern coast; Sūs...
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Bhutan - country.
languages ( see Indo-Iranian Languages) and follow Hinduism. Nepalese people constitute a significant portion of Bhutan’s population. They are the most recent settlers, occupying south central and southwestern Bhutan. TheNepalese are mainly Rai, Gurung, and Limbu ethnic groups from the eastern mountains of Nepal. Nepalese immigration has been banned since 1959, when theBhutanese government feared the minority would become too populous. Nepalese are not permitted to live in the central Middle Hi...
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Albania - country.
Joining the international community in its concern over the degradation of the environment, Albania is party to international agreements concerning biodiversity, climatechange, and wetlands. III THE PEOPLE OF ALBANIA In 2008 Albania’s population estimate was 3,619,778, resulting in an average density of 132 persons per sq km (342 per sq mi). More and more people have left ruralareas for urban ones, particularly in the northern districts, such that in 2005 some 45 percent of the population live...
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Burundi - country.
D Way of Life Most Burundians live in self-contained compounds of small round grass huts scattered over the country’s many hills. The rugo , the traditional Tutsi hut, is divided into sections and surrounded by an enclosure and cattle corrals. Families farm scattered plots of land on different soils at different altitudes to minimize crop failure. Thefloors of valleys are avoided due to higher temperatures and tsetse fly infestation. Social roles are largely determined by ethnicity, with the T...
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Guyana - country.
European patterns of living. People of mixed African and European ancestry form a distinct group in Guyana, maintaining closer social ties to the European communitythan to the African Guyanese community. Asians from the Indian subcontinent began to arrive in the 19th century, following the abolition of slavery in Guyana, to work as indentured and contract laborers. Theycontinued to arrive until 1917, when Britain outlawed indentured servitude. Thousands of Indians chose to remain in Guyana after...
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Syria - country.
D Education Primary education is free and compulsory for all children aged 6 through 12. Some 78 percent of the adult Syrian population was estimated to be literate in 2005.Primary schools enrolled 2.8 million pupils in the 2000 school year, and 1.1 million students attended secondary schools and vocational institutes. In 1998, 94,110 Syrian students were enrolled in institutes of higher education. Syria has universities in Damascus, Ḩalab, Ḩim ş, and Al L ādhiq īyah. Also in Damascus isthe Ar...
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Azerbaijan - country.
second most important industrial center after Baku. A Ethnic Groups Azerbaijan, including the autonomous exclave of Naxçivan, is populated mostly by ethnic Azerbaijanis, who are also known as Azeris. The ethnic composition of thecountry changed due to a civil war between the government of Azerbaijan and Armenian secessionists in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. Beginning in 1988, when thepeople of Nagorno-Karabakh unilaterally decided to secede from Azerbaijan, nearly the entire Azerbaijani popula...
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Somalia - country.
A Agriculture Livestock raising is the principal occupation in Somalia. The size of livestock herds began to recover in the mid-1990s after falling during the country’s civil war. Sheepand goats are the most numerous livestock, with smaller numbers of cattle. The principal crops grown are corn, sorghum, sugarcane, cassava, and bananas. B Forestry and Fishing While most wood is cut for fuel, Somalia’s major forestry export products before the 1990s were frankincense and myrrh. Fish is an import...
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Ecuador - country.
F Natural Resources Ecuador’s main mineral wealth is in petroleum. Other mineral resources of the country include gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc. Forests cover 38.3 percent of thecountry. G Plants and Animals Along the northern part of the Ecuador coast, and within the inner portion of the southern coast, tropical jungles abound. In some places the jungles extend up theslopes of the Andes as wet, mossy forests. Dense forests cover both flanks of the Cordilleras, as well as the Oriente, u...
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Bulgaria - country.
E Climate Most of Bulgaria has a continental climate, with cold winters and hot summers. The climate in general is more severe than in other European areas of the samelatitudes, and the average annual temperature range is greater than that of neighboring countries. Severe droughts, frosts, winds, and hail storms frequently damagecrops. A Mediterranean climate, with dry summers and mild, humid winters, prevails in the valley of the southwestern Rhodope Mountains; the northern limit of theclimati...
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Yemen - country.
port. Al Ḩudaydah (155,110), in the Tih āmah, is the second largest port. Ta‘izz, (178,043), in the highlands above Aden, is an important commercial and light industrialcenter. Among Yemen’s larger towns are Şa‘dah, far to the north; Dham ār, Yarim, and Ibb, in the middle region; Al Mukall ā, on the southern coast; and in Hadhramaut,the towns of Shib ām, Say‘ ūn, and Tar īm. C Language Nearly all Yemenis speak Arabic. However, the country’s extremely rugged terrain, widely separated population...
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Iraq - country.
The Euphrates begins in Turkey, crosses Syria, and enters Iraq at Abū Kam āl. The flow of the Euphrates into Iraq has been greatly reduced by dams built by Turkeyand Syria. The gradient of the Euphrates above the town of H īt, in west central Iraq, is steep. In the 2,640 km (1,640 mi) from its source in Turkey to H īt, the river fallsfrom 3,000 m (10,000 ft) to a low water elevation of 50 m (170 ft) above sea level, an average drop of 1 m per km (6 ft per mi). In Iraq below H īt the fall is very...
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Vanuatu - country.
and Luganville. V GOVERNMENT Vanuatu is governed under a constitution that came into effect with the republic’s independence in 1980. The president of Vanuatu serves as head of state, a largelyceremonial office. The president is elected by Vanuatu’s parliament and the heads of regional government councils. The parliament, or legislature, is a single-chamberbody whose membership has increased several times since independence; in 1998 the parliament had 52 members. Members of parliament are chose...
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Kiribati - country.
mainly from Japan, the European Union (EU), and Australia. Kiribati’s only major exports are copra (dried coconut meat), cultivated seaweed, and fish. The United States, Australia, and New Zealand are the leading purchasers ofthe country’s exports. Despite the cultivation of crops for local consumption, Kiribati is heavily dependent upon imported foods. Other imports include machinery andequipment, manufactured goods, and imported fossil fuels, which supply most of the country’s energy. Australi...
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Slovenia - country.
Democratic Party of Slovenia, the Christian Democratic Party, United List, the Slovenian National Party, the Democratic Party of Slovenia, and Greens of Slovenia. Slovenia has eight trial courts, four appellate courts, and a Supreme Court. The Assembly appoints all judges, including the justices of the Supreme Court. Slovenia hasan extensive network of social service programs sponsored by the government, including low-cost medical coverage and retirement pensions. Slovenia had an army of 6,550 a...
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Lesotho - country.
V GOVERNMENT Under the terms of the constitution of 1965, which was suspended in 1970, Lesotho was a constitutional monarchy with a bicameral legislature. After a coup in 1986,legislative and executive powers were vested in the king but actually exercised by a 6-member military council and a 20-member council of ministers. In 1993 Lesothoadopted a new constitution that redefined the role of the monarchy and altered the legislative branch of the government. The king, who is head of state, has no...
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Gabon - country.
government is engaged in preservation and reforestation programs. The fish catch in 2005 was 43,941 metric tons. C Mining Mining has developed rapidly since Gabon’s independence in 1960. Annual production of extremely high-grade manganese ore, from Moanda in the southeast, was1,090,000 metric tons in 2004. The rich deposits of iron ore located at Mekambo and Bélinga in the northeast have reserves estimated at more than 500 million metrictons. Exploitation of the iron ore has been hampered by th...
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Ethiopia - country.
constitute about 6 percent of the population. The Somali, who live in the east and southeast, notably in the Ogadēn region, are about equal in number to the Shangalla.The Denakil inhabit the semidesert plains east of the highlands. The nonindigenous population includes Yemenis, Indians, Armenians, and Greeks. B Political Divisions Ethiopia is divided into nine regions composed of specific ethnic groups. The regions, which have a significant degree of autonomy, are Tigray; Afar; Amhara; Oromia;S...
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Slovakia - country.
The country is divided informally into the three regions of Western Slovakia, Central Slovakia, and Eastern Slovakia, corresponding to administrative divisions that wereabolished in 1989. Most of Slovakia’s 600,000 Hungarians live in the southern parts of Western and Central Slovakia, which served as the cultural center of Hungary forseveral centuries after Hungary proper was invaded by the Ottomans in the 16th century. The Ruthenian and Ukrainian minorities are concentrated in the northernregio...
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Chad - country.
B Industries The processing of cotton and cottonseed oil and the manufacturing of peanut oil are major industries in Chad. Modern meatpacking plants have been established inN’Djamena and Sarh. The fishing industry furnishes fresh, dried, and smoked fish for domestic use and export. Petroleum mining and processing are increasinglyimportant industries in Chad. Gold and natron, a mineral used to make soap, glass, paper, and medicines, are also mined. Forestry is important in the south. The outputo...
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Zambia - country.
The Livingstone Museum, at Livingstone, has a collection relating to the archaeology and natural history of southern Africa. The Institute for African Studies of theUniversity of Zambia publishes studies relating to central Africa. IV ECONOMY The wealth of Zambia is based largely on mining in the rich copper belt, and downturns in copper prices have severely damaging economic consequences. Someprocessing and manufacturing has been started since independence, and during the 1970s attempts were...
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Jamaica - country.
majority, the Church of God, Baptists, Anglicans, Seventh-day Adventists, Pentecostalists, and Roman Catholics predominate. Several well-established Jewish, Muslim,and Hindu communities exist. A number of popular sects, such as Pocomania and Rastafarianism, are a significant and famous feature of the national religious life. C Education School attendance by children between the ages of 6 and 11 is nearly universal, and 84 percent of all 12- to 18-year-olds attend secondary institutions. In 2000...
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Denmark - country.
forests, which cover just 11.6 percent of the country, include conifers (mainly fir, spruce, larch, and pine), beech, oak, birch, and ash. Several varieties of ferns andmosses common to the northern European mainland are also found. Wild animals are scarce. Natural animal life is limited to deer and small animals such as foxes,squirrels, hares, wild ducks, pheasants, and partridges. Numerous species of freshwater fish live in Denmark’s streams and lakes. F Environmental Issues Considered highly...
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Ireland - country.
F Plants and Animals Ireland’s animal life does not differ markedly from that of England or France. Over many centuries of human settlement almost all of Ireland’s natural woodlands werecleared, and indigenous animals such as bear, wolf, wildcat, beaver, wild cattle, and the giant Irish deer (a type of fallow deer) gradually disappeared. However, thehardy and versatile Connemara pony, Ireland’s only native pony breed, has been used by Irish farmers since prehistoric times. The great auk, or gar...
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Cuba - country.
Only two land mammals, the hutia, or cane rat, and the solenodon, a rare insectivore that resembles a rat, are known to be indigenous. The island has numerous batsand nearly 300 kinds of birds, including vultures, wild turkeys, quail, finches, gulls, macaws, parakeets, and hummingbirds. The bee hummingbird of Cuba is thesmallest bird in the world. Among the few reptiles are tortoises, caimans, the Cuban crocodile, and a species of boa that can attain a length of 3.7 m (12 ft). More than700 speci...
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Costa Rica - country.
protection from future deforestation is not guaranteed. Deforestation places Costa Rica’s rich biodiversity in danger. The country’s location on the cusp between Northand South America and its abundance of tropical forests make it home to a great variety of species, many of them rare and threatened. Deforestation also contributesto the country’s problematic rate of soil erosion. Costa Rica is party to international treaties concerning biodiversity, climate change ( see Global Warming), endangere...
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Burkina Faso - country.
powers to promote the welfare of the people. The Lobi live in the southwest as farmers and hunters. Defiant of newcomers, they live in small terraced fortifications. The Bobo are chiefly farmers, artisans, and metalworkers living in large villages in the west-central part of the country. The Gourounsi are mainly artisans and farmers in the south-central areas. Their society is lesshighly structured than that of the other Voltaic groups. Christianity has made substantial inroads among them. The M...
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Dominican Republic - country.
Manatees and sea turtles also live in Dominican waters. Common birds include blue herons, glossy ibis, flamingos, and brown pelicans. E Environmental Issues Urban dwellers of the Dominican Republic enjoy good access to safe water, but rural communities do not. While current water use is low relative to available resources,water shortages do occur. Although deforestation was once a serious problem in the Dominican Republic, by the beginning of the 21st century, the annual rate of deforestation h...
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South Korea - country.
forest habitat, and overhunting. The Siberian tiger has not been sighted in the wild in South Korea since the 1920s; the Asiatic black bear can still be found in someremote mountain areas. Several species of deer are indigenous to the peninsula, including the roe deer, water deer, and Siberian musk deer. The musk deer, which hasbeen overhunted for its musk glands, is legally protected as a threatened species. Smaller mammals indigenous to the peninsula include the wild boar, red fox, badger,rabb...
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The Gambia - country.
The population of The Gambia (2008 estimate) is 1,735,464, making it one of the least populous countries of Africa. Still, the country has a fairly high overall populationdensity of 174 persons per sq km (449 per sq mi), and the population is increasing at a rate of 2.7 percent a year. Banjul, formerly called Bathurst, is the capital andonly seaport. The largest city is Serrekunda, a transportation hub and commercial center. B Religion and Language The great majority of the people of The Gambia...
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El Salvador - country.
III PEOPLE The Spanish subjugated the native population of El Salvador in the 16th century. Few Spanish women came to the country, however, so many Spanish men took NativeAmerican women as their mates. Today nearly 90 percent of the population is mestizo , of mixed European and Native American descent. People of purely Native American descent represent about 5 to 10 percent of the population, while people of European descent represent only about 1 percent. El Salvador’s population, 5.2 millio...
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Eritrea - country.
1993 decree set up a formal transitional government under EPLF control. This provided for a National Assembly, a president, and council of ministers. Isaias Afwerki,secretary general of the EPLF, was formally elected president by the National Assembly in June 1993. A new constitution was approved in 1997. Under this constitution, the National Assembly is the country’s legislature. Its members are popularly elected to five-yearterms. A president, elected by the National Assembly to a five-year te...
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South Africa - country.
The major soil zones are conditioned largely by climatic factors. In the semiarid north and west, soils are alkaline and poorly developed. In the southern part of WesternCape Province, rain falls mostly in the winter months, and soils there form slowly and are generally thin and immature. The moderate temperatures and summer rainfallof the High Veld and eastern coastal areas create conditions for more productive organic decomposition, leading to dark, fertile soils, or chernozems, similar to tho...
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Belarus - country.
In the last complete census conducted in the Soviet Union in 1989, the population of Belarus was 10,151,806; a 2008 estimate was 9,685,768, giving the country apopulation density of 47 persons per sq km (121 per sq mi). The most notable demographic trend since the 1950s has been the steady migration of the population fromthe villages to urban centers, and the correspondent aging of the population remaining in the rural areas. In 1959 urban residents accounted for 31 percent of thepopulation; in...
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Croatia - country.
III PEOPLE OF CROATIA The total population of Croatia at the time of the 1991 census was 4,784,265; a 2008 estimate was 4,491,543. During and after the war ethnic Serbs fled Croatia whileethnic Croats moved in. Croatia’s population growth rate in 2008 was -0.04 percent, despite population gains due to immigration. Croatia’s natural population growthrate, which measures births and deaths, has been negative since 1998. Life expectancy at birth was 75 years in 2008. The population density in 2008...
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Uganda - country.
Uganda’s population is predominantly rural and is concentrated in the south, particularly in the crescent at the edge of Lake Victoria and in the southwest. Almost allUgandans are black Africans. Foreign residents make up less than 4 percent of the population and come mostly from neighboring states. In 2008 Uganda’s population was estimated at 31,367,972. The estimated growth rate of the population in 2008 was 3.6 percent. The birth rate was 48 per 1,000people and the death rate 12 per 1,000. Th...
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Iceland - country.
III PEOPLE Icelanders are one of the most homogenous peoples in the world. They are predominantly of Nordic origin, descendants of the hardy people who emigrated fromNorway to Iceland in the Middle Ages. There are also some Celtic influences from Irish and Scottish immigrants who arrived from the British Isles ( see Celts). The population of Iceland (2008 estimate) is 304,367. Numerous times in its history, Iceland has suffered major population losses due to epidemics, volcanic eruptions, and...
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Saudi Arabia - country.
C Natural Resources Some of the world’s largest oil and natural gas fields lie beneath Saudi Arabia and its offshore waters, representing the country’s most economically important naturalresource. In 2007 Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves were estimated at 264 billion barrels. Before the discovery and exploitation of these reserves in the mid-20th century,Saudi Arabia was one of the poorest countries in the world. Its relatively small population subsisted in a harsh environment with little agricultur...
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Japan - country.
island’s fertile soils support agriculture and provide the vast majority of Japan’s pasturelands. In addition, Hokkaidō contains coal deposits, and the cold currents off itsshores supply cold-water fish. Winters are long and harsh, so most of Hokkaid ō is lightly settled, housing about 5 percent of Japan’s population on approximately 20 percent of its land area. However,its snowy winters and unspoiled natural beauty attract many skiers and tourists. Hokkaid ō is thought of as Japan’s northern fr...