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| World Profile |
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| The Earth and it's only Moon |
image: NASA / Public Domain |
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| Selected World Video |
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| Documentary |
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Documentary Series |
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| World Population & Health |
| World Population: |
6,706,993,152 (XIST) [5] |
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| Most Populous Country: |
China - 1,338,405,928 (China Population Clock) [6] |
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Shanghai - China - 15,968,867 (World Gazetteer) [7] |
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Tokyo - Japan - 37,730,064 (World Gazetteer) [8] |
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67.2 years (UN) [9] |
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| Infant Mortality Rate: |
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South Africa - 5,700,000 (UNAIDS) [10] |
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Somalia - 97.9% of 15-49 yr old females have had Female Genital Mutilation (UNIFEM) [11] |
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It is believed that we humans began to inhabit the Earth from about 200,000 years ago, after evolving from other species, but the planet itself is about 4.5 billion years old. Life began to develop from about 3.5 billion years ago, and nowadays it is home to an estimated 100 million different living species. Living things can flourish safely on our planet due to it's magnetic field, which is possibly controlled by the core of the planet, and which blocks harmful radiation from outer space. Other major protection for all of Earth's many life forms comes from the ozone layer, which was developed by a combination of our earliest living organisms, along with the basic elements that were present before life began on Earth. Without the Earth's protective magnetic field, and it's ozone layer, we humans would not exist.
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| World Energy |
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438 Operational Nuclear Power Reactors (IAEA) [12] |
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1 Reactor Currently in service for 43 years (IAEA) [13] |
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United States - 104 Operational Nuclear Power Reactors (IAEA) [12] |
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58 Nuclear Power Reactors Currently Under Construction (IAEA) [14] |
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124 Permanently Shutdown Nuclear Power Reactors (IAEA) [15] |
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| World Civil Rights |
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Iraq (Global Peace Index) [16] |
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New Zealand (Global Peace Index) [16] |
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Somalia (Corruption Perceptions Index) [17] |
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New Zealand (Corruption Perceptions Index) [17] |
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| World Military |
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US$1,531,000,000,000 (SIPRI) [18] |
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United States - US$661,000,000,000 (SIPRI) [18] |
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Oman - 11.40% of GDP (CIA World Factbook) [19] |
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| Lowest Military Spend (% GDP): |
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Iceland - 0.00% of GDP (CIA World Factbook) [19] |
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During 2009, 17 major conflicts took place around the World (SIPRI) [18] |
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20 major multilateral arms embargoes are currently in place (UK Government Info) [20] |
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United States - 30% of overall global arms trade (SIPRI) [18] |
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BAE Systems - United Kingdom - US$32.42bn arms sales, US$3.25bn profit - Yearly figures for 2009 (SIPRI) [18] |
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Russia - 13,000 total warheads / 4,718 operational warheads (Federation of American Scientists) [21] |
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United States - 480,000 tonnes (WISE Uranium Project) [22] |
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| World Media & Communications |
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China - 280,000,000 (UN) [23] |
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Eritrea (Press Freedom Index) [24] |
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| Most Free National Press: |
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Denmark / Finland / Ireland, Republic of / Norway / Sweden (Press Freedom Index) [24] |
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Iceland - 2052.5 Newspaper Journalists per 1 million inhabitants (UN) [23] |
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| More World Facts & Figures |
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United States - US$14,441,425,000,000 (IMF) [25] / US$14,204,322,000,000 (World Bank) [26] |
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Burj Khalifa, Dubai, United Arab Emirates - 818 metres / 2,684 feet - 160 floors (Emporis) [27] |
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| The World's Interior |
The make-up of the interior of the planet is a little hard to prove, although scientists and our schoolbooks confidently tell us that the planet gets denser as you go in deeper. The official line also declares that the crust itself only makes up about 1% of the total volume, and it is thought to be about 6km thick under the oceans, and about 30-50km thick where land is present. Inside that crust is a thin layer called the Lithosphere, and that is surrounded by a 3,000 km thick mostly-solid layer called the mantle which makes up about 84% of the Earth's volume. In the very centre of the planet is the core, which is believed to be made up from almost 90% iron - with solid iron in the inner core and liquid iron in the outer core, and some nickel in both sections too - and this section accounts for about 15% of the planets total volume. |
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Scientists also believe that the inside of our planet is active, and that therefore this creates the volcanoes and movement of the tectonic plates, which cause our continents to move gradually over vast amounts of time. The geological layers which we believe to be present reflect what we think about the make-up of the inside of the other solid planets too, but in reality, humans have only physically been about 4km under the surface (gold mines in South Africa), we have only ever drilled down to a distance of 1.7 km under the seafloor, and our deepest penetration ever by drilling under land was 12.262 km (7.62 miles) down the Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia. |
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Whilst the depth we have reached may seem massive to us, it only accounts for about 25% of the depth under both the undersea crust (1.7 km of 5-10 km) and land crust (12.262 km of 30-50 km). And the distance of well over 3,000 km to the centre of the core, dwarf's where we have gotten to physically, so we really must rely on our scientists having guessed correctly for all of this time, because we actually have no visual or physical proof available to either prove or discredit these beliefs. |
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[1] Inner Core
[2] Outer Core
[3] Lower Mantle
[4] Upper Mantle
[5] Lithosphere
[6] Crust |
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image: Mats Halldin / Chabacan ( license) |
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| The World's Continents |
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Depending on differing criteria, there can be considered from four to seven separate continents on our planet. The most popular ways of distinguishing the continents are the 7-Continent Model (Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Oceania, Antarctica), the 6-Continent Model with Europe and Asia combined (Eur-Asia, North America, South America, Africa, Oceania, Antarctica), and the 6-Continent Model which includes the America's as one single continent (Europe, The Americas, Africa, Asia, Oceania, Antarctica).
Continent Profiles: Africa / Asia / Europe /
North America / Oceania / South America
Continents listed by Area, and % of global landmass
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[1] "CIA - The World Factbook" Total surface area & total land area for the world.
[2] "List Of Geographic Names, also includes non-recognised states and some territories too" UN (United Nations). The countries highlighted in bold text are the fully internationally-recognised countries, and the remainder are a mixture of partially-recognised states, territories and dependancies.
[3] "International Hydrographic Organization" - All facts & figures quoted are dictated by the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans all ending at the 60° Southern line of latitude, as advised by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO)..
[4] "ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS: Forests" United Nations Statistics Division - Statistics compiled by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
[5] "World Population Estimate for 1st of July 2008" (XIST.org). See total at bottom of page. XIST bases it's figures on the CIA World Factbook.
[6] "Chinese Population Clock" Mainland China Reading taken on May.24.2009 @ 00.00hrs GMT: 1,330,847,828. Figures from Chinese territories of Macau & Hong Kong are then also added. Hong Kong population officially estimated at 7,008,900 on December.31.2008, and Macau population officially estimated at 549,200 on December.31.2008.
[7] "World: largest cities and towns and statistics of their population" All statistics © Stefan Helders, www.world-gazetteer.com
[8] "World: most populous metropolitan areas" All statistics © Stefan Helders, www.world-gazetteer.com
[9] "World Population Prospects, The 2006 Revision" UN (United Nations) Estimates for life expectancy for 2005-2010. These are the revised 2006 figures.
[10] "UNAIDS Interactive map" 2008 Report on the global AIDS epidemic, July 2008, UNAIDS. In the menu on the left, click on "HIV infection & AIDS Epidemic by country", then click "People living with HIV in 2007". You will then be able to view the statistics for each country by scanning over the interactive map of the World.
[11] "Countries where female genital mutilation has been documented" - PDF File/see page 29 - the latest available figures by the United Nations. This report is a section of the United Nations UNIFEM report "Eliminating Female Genital Mutilation: An Interagency Statement".
[12] "NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS - Operational & Long Term Shutdown Reactors by Country" - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
[13] "NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS - Operational Reactors by Age" - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
[14] "NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS - Under Construction Reactors by Country" - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
[15] "NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS - Shutdown Reactors by Country" - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
[16] "Global Peace Index :: Web Version".
[17] "Corruption Perceptions Index 2009" Released on the 17th of November 2009, these are the yearly CPI Index scores for the 180 countries which it evaluates. The CPI rating is based on 13 different independent surveys, however, not all surveys are used for all countries.
[18] "SIPRI Yearbook 2010: Summary" - Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
[19] "The CIA World Factbook 2009 :: Country Comparison :: Military expenditures" - Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
[20] "Current Arms Embargoes and Other Restrictions" - United Kingdom Department For Business, Innovation and Skills.
[21] "Status of World Nuclear Forces 2009" Federation of American Scientists - All numbers are estimates and are updated when new information becomes available. Current update: October.02.2009 - last retrieved by BlatantWorld.com on January.05.2010
[22] "World Depleted Uranium Inventory" WISE Uranium Project - This is the most accurate and up-to-date list out there for depleted Uranium stocks around the World. This list has last been updated by WISE Uranium Project on the 21st of April 2008, and was last retrieved by Blatant World.com on January.07.2010
[23] The statistics quoted above are taken from the UNdata statistics database - United Nations.
[24] "Press Freedom Index 2009" - Reporters Without Borders.
[25] "World Economic Outlook Database, October 2009" These are the latest figures to be released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as of the 1st of October 2009, and are based on the total GDP for each country for the whole of 2008.
[26] "World Bank Gross Domestic Product Figures For 2008" These are the latest available figures which were released by the World Bank as of the 1st of October 2009, and are based on the total GDP for each country for the whole of 2008.
[27] "Official World's 200 Tallest High-rise Buildings" (Emporis.com) |
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| This article is copyrighted to BlatantWorld.com, and may not be re-published for any reason. |
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Whilst we would ideally like to offer this article under a Creative Commons License, we are putting this copyrighted notice on this page due to it's nature - it is constantly changing with new facts & figures being added and statistics continuously being updated - plus it contains a mixture of data from sources which would not allow us to offer them under a Creative Commons License. |
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