gable most of the year

Terrain:

wild, rugged mountains; much of high land ice covered; west coast
clear of ice about one-half of the year; fjords along west and north
coasts

Elevation extremes:

lowest point: Arctic Ocean 0 m
highest point: Newtontoppen 1,717 m

Natural resources:

coal, iron ore, copper, zinc, phosphate, wildlife, fish

Land use:

arable land: 0%
permanent crops: 0%
other: 100% (no trees; the only bushes are crowberry and cloudberry)
(2005)

Irrigated land:

NA

Natural hazards:

ice floes often block the entrance to Bellsund (a transit point for
coal export) on the west coast and occasionally make parts of the
northeastern coast inaccessible to maritime traffic

Environment - current issues:

NA

Geography - note:

northernmost part of the Kingdom of Norway; consists of nine main
islands; glaciers and snowfields cover 60% of the total area;
Spitsbergen Island is the site of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a
seed repository established by the Global Crop Diversity Trust and
the Norwegian Government

People
Svalbard

Population:

2,165 (July 2008 est.)

Age structure:

0-14 years: NA
15-64 years: NA
65 years and over: NA

Population growth rate:

-0.023% (2008 est.)

Birth rate:

NA (2008 est.)

Death rate:

NA (2008 est.)

Net migration rate:

NA (2008 est.)

Sex ratio:

NA

Infant mortality rate:

total: NA
male: NA
female: NA (2008 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:

total population: NA
male: NA
female: NA (2008 est.)

Total fertility rate:

NA (2008 est.)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:

0% (2001)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:

0 (2001)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:

0 (2001)

Ethnic groups:

Norwegian 55.4%, Russian and Ukrainian 44.3%, other 0.3% (1998)

Languages:

Norwegian, Russian

Literacy:

NA

Government
Svalbard

Country name:

conventional long form: none
conventional short form: Svalbard (sometimes referred to as
Spitzbergen)

Dependency status:

territory of Norway; administered by the Polar Department of the
Ministry of Justice, through a governor (sysselmann) residing in
Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen; by treaty (9 February 1920) sovereignty
was awarded to Norway

Government type:

NA

Capital:

name: Longyearbyen
geographic coordinates: 78 13 N, 15 33 E
time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during