Facts about the world.... in all my boredness i will share this ever so useful knowledge..... Globally, the 20th century was marked by: (a) two devastating world wars; (b) the Great Depression of the 1930s; (c) the end of vast colonial empires; (d) rapid advances in science and technology, from the first airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina (US) to the landing on the moon; (e) the Cold War between the Western alliance and the Warsaw Pact nations; (f) a sharp rise in living standards in North America, Europe, and Japan; (g) increased concerns about the environment, including loss of forests, shortages of energy and water, the decline in biological diversity, and air pollution; (h) the onset of the AIDS epidemic; and (i) the ultimate emergence of the US as the only world superpower. The planet's population continues to explode: from 1 billion in 1820, to 2 billion in 1930, 3 billion in 1960, 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1988, and 6 billion in 2000. For the 21st century, the continued exponential growth in science and technology raises both hopes (e.g., advances in medicine) and fears (e.g., development of even more lethal weapons of war). Area: total: 510.072 million sq km land: 148.94 million sq km water: 361.132 million sq km note: 70.8% of the world's surface is water, 29.2% is land land area about 16 times the size of the US the greatest ocean depth is the Mariana Trench at 10,924 m in the Pacific Ocean highest point: Mount Everest 8,850 m Population: 6,446,131,400 (July 2005 est.) Age structure: 0-14 years: 27.8% (male 919,726,623; female 870,468,158) 15-64 years: 64.9% (male 2,117,230,183; female 2,066,864,970) 65 years and over: 7.3% (male 207,903,775; female 263,627,270) 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 (2005 est.) Total fertility rate: 2.6 children born/woman (2005 est.) Unemployment rate: 30% combined unemployment and underemployment in many non-industrialized countries; developed countries typically 4%-12% unemployment Telephones - main lines in use: 843,923,500 (2003) Airports: 49,973 (2004) Military expenditures - dollar figure: aggregate real expenditure on arms worldwide in 1999 remained at approximately the 1998 level, about three-quarters of a trillion dollars (1999 est.) Economic aid - recipient: $154 billion official development assistance (ODA) (2004) Debt - external: $12.7 trillion (2004 est.) http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/xx.html
