, rock salt, marble; small deposits of coal,
nickel, and copper; fertile soil

Land use: 14% arable land; NEGL% permanent crops; 36% meadows and
pastures; 8% forest and woodland; 42% other; includes 1% irrigated

Environment: subject to sand and dust storms in summer;
overgrazing; soil erosion; desertification

Note: controls northern approaches to Bab el Mandeb linking Red Sea
and Gulf of Aden, one of world's most active shipping lanes

- People
Population: 7,160,981 (July 1990), growth rate 3.1% (1990)

Birth rate: 52 births/1,000 population (1990)

Death rate: 17 deaths/1,000 population (1990)

Net migration rate: - 4 migrants/1,000 population (1990)

Infant mortality rate: 129 deaths/1,000 live births (1990)

Life expectancy at birth: 48 years male, 49 years female (1990)

Total fertility rate: 7.6 children born/woman (1990)

Nationality: noun--Yemeni(s); adjective--Yemeni

Ethnic divisions: 90% Arab, 10% Afro-Arab (mixed)

Religion: 100% Muslim (Sunni and Shia)

Language: Arabic

Literacy: 15% (est.)

Labor force: NA; 70% agriculture and herding, 30% expatriate laborers
(est.)

- Government
Long-form name: Yemen Arab Republic; abbreviated YAR

Type: republic; military regime assumed power in June 1974

Capital: Sanaa

Administrative divisions: 11 governorates (muhafazat,
singular--muhafazah); Al Bayda, Al Hudaydah, Al Jawf,
Al Mahwit, Dhamar, Hajjah, Ibb, Marib, Sadah, Sana,
Taizz

Independence: November 1918 (from Ottoman Empire)

Constitution: 28 December 1970, suspended 19 June 1974

Legal system: based on Turkish law, Islamic law, and local customary law;
has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

National holiday: Proclamation of the Republic, 26 September (1962)

Executive branch: president, vice president, prime minister,
four deputy prime ministers, Council of Ministers (cabinet)

Legislative branch: unicameral Consultative Assembly
(Majlis ash-Shura)

Judicial branch: State Security Court

Leaders:
Chief of State--President Col. Ali Abdallah SALIH (since 18 July
1978); Vice President (vacant);

Head of Government--Prime Minister Abd al-Aziz ABD AL-GHANI
(since 12 November 1983, previously prime minister from 1975-1980 and
co-Vice President from October 1980 to November 1983)

Political parties and leaders: no legal political parties; in 1983
President Salih started the General People's Congress, which is designed
to function as the country's sole political party