Land use: 5% arable land; NEGL% permanent crops; 24% meadows and pastures;
20% forest and woodland; 51% other; includes 1% irrigated

Environment: dominated by the Nile and its tributaries; dust storms;
desertification

Note: largest country in Africa

- People
Population: 24,971,806 (July 1990), growth rate 2.9% (1990)

Birth rate: 44 births/1,000 population (1990)

Death rate: 14 deaths/1,000 population (1990)

Net migration rate: - 2 migrants/1,000 population (1990)

Infant mortality rate: 107 deaths/1,000 live births (1990)

Life expectancy at birth: 51 years male, 55 years female (1990)

Total fertility rate: 6.5 children born/woman (1990)

Nationality: noun--Sudanese (sing. and pl.); adjective--Sudanese

Ethnic divisions: 52% black, 39% Arab, 6% Beja, 2% foreigners, 1% other

Religion: 70% Sunni Muslim (in north), 20% indigenous beliefs,
5% Christian (mostly in south and Khartoum)

Language: Arabic (official), Nubian, Ta Bedawie, diverse dialects of
Nilotic, Nilo-Hamitic, and Sudanic languages, English; program of Arabization in
process

Literacy: 31% (1986)

Labor force: 6,500,000; 80% agriculture, 10% industry and commerce,
6% government; labor shortages for almost all categories of skilled employment
(1983 est.); 52% of population of working age (1985)

Organized labor: trade unions suspended following 30 June 1989
coup; now in process of being legalized anew

- Government
Long-form name: Republic of the Sudan

Type: military; civilian government suspended and martial law
imposed after 30 June 1989 coup

Capital: Khartoum

Administrative divisions: 9 regions (aqalim, singular--iqlim);
Aali an Nil, Al Awsat, Al Istiwai, Al Khartum,
Ash Shamali, Ash Sharqi, Bahr al Ghazal, Darfur, Kurdufan

Independence: 1 January 1956 (from Egypt and UK; formerly Anglo-Egyptian
Sudan)

Constitution: 12 April 1973, suspended following coup of 6 April 1985;
interim constitution of 10 October 1985 suspended following coup of 30
June 1989

Legal system: based on English common law and Islamic law;
in September 1983 then President Nimeiri declared the penal code would
conform to Islamic law; some separate religious courts; accepts
compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

National holiday: Independence Day, 1 January (1956)

Executive branch: executive and legislative authority vested in a
15-member Revolutionary Command Council (RCC); chairman of the RCC acts
as prime minister; in July 1989 R