Land use:
arable land: 29%
permanent crops: 0%
meadows and pastures: 48%
forest and woodland: 9%
other: 14%
Irrigated land: 1,570 sq km (1989)
Environment:
current issues: sulfur dioxide emissions from power plants
contribute to air pollution; some rivers polluted by agricultural
wastes and coastal waters polluted because of large-scale disposal
of sewage at sea
natural hazards: NA
international agreements: party to - Air Pollution, Air
Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity,
Climate Change, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification,
Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Nuclear
Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber
83, Wetlands, Whaling; signed, but not ratified - Air
Pollution-Sulphur 94, Desertification
Geographic note: lies near vital North Atlantic sea lanes; only 35 km from France and now linked by tunnel under the English Channel; because of heavily indented coastline, no location is more than 125 km from tidal waters
People ———
Population: 58,489,975 (July 1996 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 20% (male 5,853,545; female 5,565,153)
15-64 years: 65% (male 19,050,420; female 18,797,406)
65 years and over: 15% (male 3,753,361; female 5,470,090) (July 1996
est.)
Population growth rate: 0.22% (1996 est.)
Birth rate: 13.12 births/1,000 population (1996 est.)
Death rate: 11.24 deaths/1,000 population (1996 est.)