Land use: arable land: 0.6% permanent crops: 0.4% other: 99% (1998 est.)
Irrigated land:
NA sq km
Natural hazards:
hurricanes and other tropical storms cause extensive flood and wind
damage
Environment - current issues:
coral reef decay; solid waste disposal
Environment - international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
Pollution, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
Geography - note:
strategic location adjacent to US and Cuba; extensive island chain
of which 30 are inhabited
People Bahamas, The
Population:
297,477
note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
2003 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 28.8% (male 42,799; female 42,730)
15-64 years: 65.4% (male 95,718; female 98,875)
65 years and over: 5.8% (male 7,092; female 10,263) (2003 est.)
Median age:
total: 27 years
male: 26.2 years
female: 27.7 years (2002)