ious estimates,
many from studies dating to 1993 or earlier. The preliminary ICP report
provides estimates of internationally comparable price levels and the
relative purchasing power of currencies for 146 countries. The 2005
benchmark revises downward the size of the world economy in PPP terms
from the previous estimates, and changes the relative sizes of many of
the world's economies.

Concise descriptions of the major religions mentioned in the Factbook
have been added to the Notes and Definitions. France 's redesignation
of some of its overseas possessions caused the five former Indian Ocean
island possessions making up Iles Eparses to be incorporated into the
French Southern and Antarctic Lands, while two new Caribbean entities,
St. Barthelemy and St. Martin, were created.

Revision of some individual country maps, first introduced in the 2001
edition, is continued in this edition. The revised maps include
elevation extremes and a partial geographic grid. Several regional maps
have also been updated to reflect boundary changes and place name
spelling changes.

Abbreviations: This information is included in Appendix A:
Abbreviations, which includes all abbreviations and acronyms used in
the Factbook, with their expansions.

Acronyms: An acronym is an abbreviation coined from the initial letter
of each successive word in a term or phrase. In general, an acronym
made up solely from the first letter of the major words in the expanded
form is rendered in all capital letters (NATO from North Atlantic
Treaty Organization; an exception would be ASEAN for Association of
Southeast Asian Nations). In general, an acronym made up of more than
the first letter of the major words in the expanded form is rendered
with only an initial capital letter (Comsat from Communications
Satellite Corporation; an exception would be NAM from Nonaligned
Movement). Hybrid forms are sometimes used to distinguish between
initially identical terms (ICC for International Chamber of Commerce
and ICCt for International Criminal Court).

Administrative divisions: This entry generally gives the numbers,
designatory terms, and first-order administrative divisions as approved
by the US Board on Geographic Names (BGN). Changes that have been
reported but not yet acted on by the BGN are noted.

Age structure: This entry provides the distribution of the population
according to age. Information is included by sex and age group (0-14
years, 15-64 y