World affairs annual 2009.

• Position: Statistical table

IN THE 22 PAGES that follow, you'll find MAPS and the LATEST DATA on the world's 175 COUNTRIES--everything from languages and life expectancy to the percentage of young people in the population. To better understand the data, read the explanations accompanying the sample entry for India below. ON EACH MAP, you'll find summaries of key news stories to watch this year. And in our SNAPSHOTS section, you'll team, among other things, which countries have the most TV stations and which have the highest proportion of teenage brides and grooms. We hope you'll keep this issue FOR YEAR-ROUND REFERENCE, and that it will help you make sense of what's going on in the world as we head into 2009.

COUNTRY INDIA

CAPITAL NEW DELHI

MAJOR LANGUAGES

HINDI

ENGLISH

MANY OTHER

AREA & POPULATION

Land mass in square mites and number of people. To calculate population density, divide population by area. For example, India has about 905 people per square mile.

AREA (SQ MI) 1,269,340

POPULATION 1,149,300,000

URBAN POPULATION

The percentage of a country's population living in urban areas. Urbanization is on the rise in developing countries, as people move to cities in search of work.

URBAN POP. % 28

POP. RISE%/YEAR 1.6

POLITICAL SYSTEM & HEAD OF GOVERNMENT

Type of government and name of current Leader. Manmohan Singh has been India's Prime Minister since 2004.

POLITICAL SYSTEM & HEAD OF GOVERNMENT

Parliamentary democracy

Prime Minister MANMOHAN SINGH

LITERACY RATE

Percentage of people who can read and write. The first number is for men, the second for women. (A single number means a breakdown by gender was not available.)

LITERACY RATE (%) 73/48

LIFE EXPECTANCY 65/66

DATE OF ORIGIN

The year a nation was formed, gained independence, or took on its modern form.

DATE OF ORIGIN 1947

% POP. UNDER 15 32

PER CAPITA GDP

The value of all goods and services produced within a country in one year (gross domestic product), divided by population, it's one way to gauge a nation's wealth. The numbers are adjusted to account for differences in the cost of living from country to country.

PER CAPITA GDP $2,700

HDI 0.619

POPULATION GROWTH

The percentage increase in a country's population (the birth rate minus the death rate, without factoring in immigration) for the most recent year available.

MAJOR LANGUAGES

There are nearly 7,000 languages spoken in the world. Hindi is the primary Language of 42 percent of India's population.

PERCENTAGE OF POPULATION UNDER 15

In India, 32 percent of the population is under 15, compared with 20 percent in the U.S. Compare those figures with Uganda, in Africa, where it is 49 percent.

LIFE EXPECTANCY

The number of years a newborn infant can expect to live, based on the current average age of death. The first number is for men, the second for women.

HDI (HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX)

A measure of economic and social well-being on a scale of 0 to 1 (1 is the highest). It factors in Life expectancy, literacy, and purchasing power.

ECONOMIC MAP OF THE WORLD

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WEALTH OF NATIONS 2008 PER CAPITA GDP IN U.S. DOLLARS ZIMBABWE $200 DEM. REP. OF CONGO $300 BURUNDI $300 LIBERIA $500 SOMALIA $600 SIERRA LEONE $600 GUINEA-BISSAU $600 ETHIOPIA $700 NIGER $700 CENTRAL AFRICA REP. $700 SWITZERLAND $40,100 ICELAND $40,400 USA $45,800 IRELAND $46,600 SINGAPORE $49,900 BRUNEI $51,000 NORWAY $53,300 KUWAIT $55,900 LUXEMBOURG $79,400 QATAR $87,600 TOP 10 TALKERS CELL-PHONE SUBSCRIPTIONS PER 100 PEOPLE LUXEMBOURG 157 ITALY 122 CZECH REPUBLIC 115 GREECE 112 PORTUGAL 109 UNITED KINGDOM 106 NORWAY 103 ICELAND 103 FINLAND 103 NEW ZEALAND 102 UNITED STATES 72 SOURCE: ORGANIZATION FOR ECONOMIC COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT; THE ECONOMIST TOP 10 OIL PRODUCERS CONSUMER MILLIONS OF BARRELS PER DAY PRODUCERS NORWAY 2.8 VENEZUELA 2.8 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 2.9 CANADA 3.3 MEXICO 3.7 CHINA 3.8 IRAN 4.1 UNITED STATES 8.3 RUSSIA 9.7 SAUDI ARABIA 10.7 CONSUMERS SAUDI ARABIA 2.2 SOUTH KOREA 2.2 BRAZIL 2.2 CANADA 2.3 INDIA 2.5 GERMANY 2.7 RUSSIA 2.8 JAPAN 5.2 CHINA 7.2 UNITED STATES 20.7 SOURCE: ENERGY INFORMATION [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

EUROPE

Dmitri Medvedev was erected President of RUSSIA in 2008. He's a longtime protege of Prime Minister (and former President) Vladimir Putin. and Russia watchers say Putin is really still in charge.

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Literally and culturally, TURKEY straddles both Europe and Asia. It is trying to win admission to the European Union.

EUROPE URBAN POP. % AREA (SQ MI) POP. RISE COUNTRY POPULATION %/YEAR CAPITAL ALBANIA 11,100 45 TIRANA 3,200,000 0.7 ANDORRA 174 90 ANDORRA 100,000 0.7 LAVELLA AUSTRIA 32,378 67 VIENNA 8,400,000 0 BELARUS 80,154 73 MINSK -0.3 9,700,000 BELGIUM 11,787 97 BRUSSELS 10,700,000 0.2 BOSNIA & 19,741 46 SARAJEVO HERZEGOVINA 3,800,000 0 BULGARIA 42,822 71 SOFIA 7,600,000 -0.5 CROATIA 21,830 56 ZAGREB 4,400,000 -0.3 CZECH 30,448 74 PRAGUE REPUBLIC 10,400,000 0.1 DENMARK 16,637 72 COPENHAGEN 5,500,000 0.2 ESTONIA 17,413 69 TALLINN 1,300,000 -0.1 FINLAND 130,560 63 HELSINKI 5,300,000 0.2 FRANCE 212,934 77 PARIS 62,000,000 0.4 GERMANY 137,830 73 BERLIN 82,200,000 -0.2 GREECE 50,950 60 ATHENS 11,200,000 0.1 HUNGARY 35,919 66 BUDAPEST 10,000,000 -0.4 ICELAND 39,768 93 REYKJAVIK 300,000 0.8 IRELAND 27,135 60 DUBLIN 4,500,000 0.8 ITALY 116,320 68 ROME 59,900,000 0.9 KOSOV0 (2) 4,203 NA PRISTINA 2,100,000 NA LATVIA 24,942 68 RIGA 2,300,000 -0.4 LIECHTENSTEIN 62 15 VADUZ 40,000 0.4 LITHUANIA 25,174 67 VILNIUS 3,400,000 -0.4 LUXEMBOURG 999 83 500,000 0.3 LUXEMBOURG MACEDONIA 9,927 65 2,000,000 0.2 SKOPJE MALTA 124 94 VALLETTA 400,000 0.2 MOLDOVA 13,012 41 CHISINAU 4,100,000 -0.1 MONACO 1 100 MONACO 30,000 0.9 MONTENEGRO 5,333 64 PODGORICA 600,000 0.3 NETHERLANDS 15,768 66 AMSTERDAM 16,400,000 0.3 NORWAY 125,050 79 OSLO 4,800,000 0.4 POLAND 124,807 61 WARSAW 38,100,000 0 PORTUGAL 35,514 55 LISBON 10,600,000 0 ROMANIA 92,042 55 BUCHAREST 21,500,000 -0.2 RUSSIA 6,592,819 73 MOSCOW 141,900,000 -0.3 SAN MARINO 23 84 SAN MARINO 30,000 0.3 SERBIA 34,115 56 BELGRADE 7,400,000 -0.4 SLOVAKIA 18,923 56 BRATISLAVA 5,400,000 0 SLOVENIA 7,819 48 LJUBLJANA 2,000,000 0.1 SPAIN 195,363 77 MADRID 46,500,000 0.2 SWEDEN 173,730 84 STOCKHOLM 9,200,000 0.2 SWITZERLAND 15,942 68 BERN 7,600,000 0.2 UKRAINE 233,089 68 KIEV 46,200,000 -0.6 UNITED 94,548 80 LONDON KINGDOM 61,300,000 0.3 (ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, WALES & N IRELAND) VATICAN CITY 109 ACRES NA VATICAN CITY 824 0 EUROPE MAJOR POLITICAL SYSTEM & COUNTRY LANGUAGES HEAD OF GOVERNMENT ALBANIA ALBANIAN Presidential-parliamentary GREEK democracy Prime Minister SALI BERISHA ANDORRA CATALAN Presidential-parliamentary FRENCH democracy CASTILIAN Executive Council President ALBERT PINTAT SANTOLARIA AUSTRIA GERMAN Parliamentary democracy Chancellor ALFRED GUSENBAUER BELARUS BELARUSSIAN Presidential dictatorship RUSSIAN President ALEKSANDR OTHERS LUKASHENKO BELGIUM FLEMISH Parliamentary democracy FRENCH Prime Minister YVES LETERME GERMAN BOSNIA & SERBO-CROATIAN Presidential-parliamentary HERZEGOVINA (transitional) Rotating Chairman of the Presidency (1) BULGARIA BULGARIAN Parliamentary democracy OTHERS Prime Minister SERGEI STANISHEV CROATIA SERBO-CROATIAN Presidential-parliamentary democracy President IVO SANADER CZECH CZECH Parliamentary democracy REPUBLIC SLOVAK Prime Minister MIREK TOPOLANEK DENMARK DANISH Parliamentary democracy GREENLANDIC Prime Minister ANDERS FOGH FAROESE & GERMAN RASMUSSEN ESTONIA ESTONIAN Parliamentary democracy UKRAINIAN Prime Minister ANDRUS ANSIP RUSSIAN & OTHERS FINLAND FINNISH Presidential-parliamentary SWEDISH democracy LAPP & RUSSIAN President TARJA HALONEN FRANCE FRENCH Presidential-parliamentary REGIONAL DIALECTS democracy President NICOLAS SARKOZY GERMANY GERMAN Parliamentary democracy Chancellor ANGELA MERKEL GREECE GREEK Parliamentary democracy ENGLISH Prime Minister KOSTAS FRENCH KARAMANLIS HUNGARY HUNGARIAN Parliamentary democracy OTHERS Prime Minister FERENC GYURCSANY ICELAND ICELANDIC Parliamentary democracy Prime Minister GEIR H. HAARDE IRELAND ENGLISH Parliamentary democracy GAELIC Prime Minister BRIAN COWEN ITALY ITALIAN Parliamentary democracy GERMAN Prime Minister SILVIO FRENCH & SLOVENE BERLUSCONI KOSOVO (2) ALBANIAN Presidential-parliamentary SERBIAN democracy (transitional) OTHERS Prime Minister HASHIM THACI LATVIA LETTISH Parliamentary democracy LITHUANIAN Prime Minister WARS GODMANIS RUSSIAN & OTHERS LIECHTENSTEIN GERMAN Constitutional monarchy ALEMANNIC DIALECT Prime Minister OTMAR HASLER LITHUANIA LITHUANIAN presidential-parliamentary POLISH RUSSIAN democracy President VALDAS ADAMKUS LUXEMBOURG LUXEMBOURGISH Parliamentary democracy GERMAN Prime Minister JEAN-CLAUDE FRENCH & ENGLISH JUNCKER MACEDONIA MACEDONIAN Presidential-parliamentary ALBANIAN democracy OTHERS Prime Minister NIKOLA MALTESE GRUEVSKI MALTA ENGLISH Parliamentary democracy MOLDOVAN Prime Minister LAWRENCE GONZI MOLDOVA RUSSIAN Parliamentary democracy GAGAUZ President VLADIMIR VORONIN MONACO FRENCH Constitutional monarchy ENGLISH Prince ALBERT II ITALIAN & MONEGASQUE MONTENEGRO MONTENEGRIN Presidential-parliamentary SERBIAN democracy BOSNIAK & ALBANIAN President FILIP VUJANOVIC NETHERLANDS DUTCH Parliamentary democracy Prime Minister JAN PETER BALKENENDE NORWAY NORWEGIAN Parliamentary democracy LAPP Prime Minister JENS FINNISH STOLTENBERG POLAND POLISH Presidential-partiamentary democracy President LECH KACZYNSKI PORTUGAL PORTUGUESE Presidential-parliamentary democracy Prime Minister JOSE SOCRATES ROMANIA ROMANIAN Presidential-parliamentary HUNGARIAN democracy GERMAN President TRAIAN BASESCU RUSSIA RUSSIAN Dominant party OTHERS President DMITRY MEDVEDEV SAN MARINO ITALIAN Parliamentary democracy Co-Captains Regent elected every six months from the Great and General Council SERBIA SERBO-CROATIAN Presidential-parliamentary ALBANIAN democracy (transitional) President BORIS TADIC SLOVAKIA SLOVAK Parliamentary democracy HUNGARIAN Prime Minister ROBERT FICO SLOVENIA SLOVENIAN Parliamentary democracy SERBO-CROATIAN Prime Minister JANEZ JANSA OTHERS SPAIN SPANISH...