Environment—current issues: deforestation; desertification; soil
erosion; overgrazing; loss of infrastructure from civil warfare
Environment—international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
Species
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
Geography—note: strategic geopolitical position along world's
busiest shipping lanes; Eritrea retained the entire coastline of
Ethiopia along the Red Sea upon de jure independence from Ethiopia
on 27 April 1993
People
Population: 3,984,723 (July 1999 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 43% (male 859,899; female 852,329)
15-64 years: 54% (male 1,061,921; female 1,078,102)
65 years and over: 3% (male 67,969; female 64,503) (1999 est.)
Population growth rate: 3.88% (1999 est.)
Birth rate: 42.56 births/1,000 population (1999 est.)
Death rate: 12.32 deaths/1,000 population (1999 est.)
Net migration rate: 8.53 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1999 est.) note: it is estimated that approximately 315,000 Eritrean refugees were still living in Sudan by the end of 1997 according to the UNHCR