Land use: arable land: 10.58% permanent crops: 1% other: 88.42% (1998 est.)
Irrigated land:
2,714,320 sq km (1998 est.)
Natural hazards:
large areas subject to severe weather (tropical cyclones), natural
disasters (earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions)
Environment - current issues: large areas subject to overpopulation, industrial disasters, pollution (air, water, acid rain, toxic substances), loss of vegetation (overgrazing, deforestation, desertification), loss of wildlife, soil degradation, soil depletion, erosion
Geography - note:
the world is now thought to be about 4.55 billion years old, just
about one-third of the 13-billion-year age estimated for the universe
People World
Population:
6,302,309,691 (July 2003 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 29.2% (male 932,581,592; female 885,688,851)
15-64 years: 63.7% (male 2,009,997,089; female 1,964,938,201)
65 years and over: 7.1% (male 193,549,180; female 247,067,032) (2003
est.)
note: some countries do not maintain age structure information, thus
a slight discrepancy exists between the total world population and
the total for world age structure
Population growth rate:
1.17% (2003 est.)
Birth rate:
20.43 births/1,000 population (2003 est.)