le living with HIV/AIDS: NA

HIV/AIDS - deaths: NA

World Government

Administrative divisions: 267 nations, dependent areas, other, and
miscellaneous entries

Legal system: all members of the UN plus Switzerland are parties to
the statute that established the International Court of Justice
(ICJ) or World Court

World Economy

Economy - overview: Growth in global output (gross world product,
GWP) rose to 4.8% in 2000 from 3.5% in 1999, despite continued low
growth in Japan, severe financial difficulties in other East Asian
countries, and widespread dislocations in several transition
economies. The US economy continued its remarkable sustained
prosperity, growing at 5% in 2000, although growth slowed in fourth
quarter 2000; the US accounted for 23% of GWP. The EU economies grew
at 3.3% and produced 20% of GWP. China, the second largest economy
in the world, continued its strong growth and accounted for 10% of
GWP. Japan grew at only 1.3% in 2000; its share in GWP is 7%. As
usual, the 15 successor nations of the USSR and the other old Warsaw
Pact nations experienced widely different rates of growth. The
developing nations also varied in their growth results, with many
countries facing population increases that eat up gains in output.
Externally, the nation-state, as a bedrock economic-political
institution, is steadily losing control over international flows of
people, goods, funds, and technology. Internally, the central
government often finds its control over resources slipping as
separatist regional movements - typically based on ethnicity - gain
momentum, e.g., in many of the successor states of the former Soviet
Union, in the former Yugoslavia, in India, and in Canada. In Western
Europe, governments face the difficult political problem of
channeling resources away from welfare programs in order to increase
investment and strengthen incentives to seek employment. The
addition of 80 million people each year to an already overcrowded
globe is exacerbating the problems of pollution, desertification,
underemployment, epidemics, and famine. Because of their own
internal problems and priorities, the industrialized countries
devote insufficient resources to deal effectively with the poorer
areas of the world, which, at least from the economic point of view,
are becoming further marginalized. Continued financial difficulties
in East Asia, Russia, and many African nations, as well as the
slowdown in US