shed by the Department of State, is included.
References to other situations may also be included that are border or
frontier relevant, such as maritime disputes, geopolitical questions, or
irredentist issues. However, inclusion does not necessarily constitute
official acceptance or recognition by the US Government.

Economic aid: This entry refers to bilateral commitments of official develop-
ment assistance (ODA), which is defined as government grants that are
administered with the promotion of economic development and welfare of LDCs
as their main objective and are concessional in character and contain a
grant element of at least 25%, and other official flows (OOF) or transactions
by the official sector whose main objective is other than development
motivated or whose grant element is below the 25% threshold for ODA. OOF
transactions include official export credits (such as Eximbank credits),
official equity and portfolio investment, and debt reorganization by the
official sector that does not meet concessional terms. Aid is considered to
have been committed when agreements are initialed by the parties involved and
constitute a formal declaration of intent.

Entities: Some of the nations, dependent areas, areas of special sovereignty,
and governments included in this publication are not independent, and others
are not officially recognized by the US Government. ``Nation'' refers to a
people politically organized into a sovereign state with a definite territory.
``Dependent'' area refers to a broad category of political entities that are
associated in some way with a nation. Names used for page headings are usually
the short-form names as approved by the US Board on Geographic Names. The
long-form name is included in the ``Government'' section, and an entry of
``none'' indicates a long-form name does not exist. In some instances, no
short-form name exists - then the long-form name must serve for all usages.
There are 264 entities in The World Factbook that may be categorized as
follows:

NATIONS

177 UN members (excluding Yugoslavia)

11 nations that are not members of the UN - Andorra, Georgia, Kiribati,
Macedonia, Monaco, Nauru, Serbia and Montenegro, Switzerland, Tonga, Tuvalu,
Vatican City (Holy See)

OTHER

1 Taiwan

DEPENDENT AREAS

6 Australia - Ashmore and Cartier Islands, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling)
Islands, Coral Sea Islands, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Norfolk Island

2 Denmark - Fa