Environment - international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Hazardous
Wastes, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification
Geography - note:
there are 42 Israeli settlements and civilian land use sites in the
Israeli-occupied Golan Heights (February 2002 est.)
People Syria
Population:
17,585,540 (July 2002 est.)
note: in addition, about 40,000 people live in the Israeli-occupied
Golan Heights - 20,000 Arabs (18,000 Druze and 2,000 Alawites) and
about 20,000 Israeli settlers (February 2003 est.) (July 2003 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 38.6% (male 3,494,473; female 3,290,699)
15-64 years: 58.2% (male 5,238,026; female 4,991,588)
65 years and over: 3.2% (male 274,744; female 296,010) (2003 est.)
Median age:
total: 19.7 years
male: 19.6 years
female: 19.9 years (2002)
Population growth rate:
2.45% (2003 est.)
Birth rate:
29.54 births/1,000 population (2003 est.)
Death rate:
5.04 deaths/1,000 population (2003 est.)
Net migration rate:
0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2003 est.)