rd of the men and half of all women are illiterate (2005 est.)

Government World

Administrative divisions:
268 nations, dependent areas, and other entities

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

Economy World

Economy - overview:
Global output rose by 4.4% in 2005, led by China (9.3%), India
(7.6%), and Russia (5.9%). The other 14 successor nations of the
USSR and the other old Warsaw Pact nations again experienced widely
divergent growth rates; the three Baltic nations continued as strong
performers, in the 7% range of growth. Growth results posted by the
major industrial countries varied from no gain for Italy to a strong
gain by the United States (3.5%). The developing nations also varied
in their growth results, with many countries facing population
increases that erode 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, in Iraq, in Indonesia, and in Canada.
Externally, the central government is losing decisionmaking powers
to international bodies, notably the EU. 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 an economic point of view,
are becoming further marginalized. The introduction of the euro as
the common currency of much of Western Europe in January 1999, while
paving the way for an integrated economic powerhouse, poses economic
risks because of varying levels of income and cultural and political
differences among the participatin