ainy season (April to October)
Terrain:
generally flat, featureless plain; mountains in east and west
Natural resources:
small reserves of petroleum, iron ore, copper, chromium ore, zinc, tungsten,
mica, silver
Land use:
arable land:
5%
permanent crops:
0%
meadows and pastures:
24%
forest and woodland:
20%
other:
51%
Irrigated land:
18,900 km2 (1989 est.)
Environment:
dominated by the Nile and its tributaries; dust storms; desertification
Note:
largest country in Africa

*Sudan, People

Population:
28,730,381 (July 1993 est.)
Population growth rate:
2.38% (1993 est.)
Birth rate:
42.65 births/1,000 population (1993 est.)
Death rate:
12.45 deaths/1,000 population (1993 est.)
Net migration rate:
-6.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1993 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
81.3 deaths/1,000 live births (1993 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population:
53.85 years
male:
53 years
female:
54.73 years (1993 est.)
Total fertility rate: 6.19 children born/woman (1993 est.)
Nationality:
noun:
Sudanese (singular and plural)
adjective:
Sudanese
Ethnic divisions:
black 52%, Arab 39%, Beja 6%, foreigners 2%, other 1%
Religions:
Sunni Muslim 70% (in north), indigenous beliefs 25%, Christian 5% (mostly in
south and Khartoum)
Languages:
Arabic (official), Nubian, Ta Bedawie, diverse dialects of Nilotic,
Nilo-Hamitic, Sudanic languages, English
note:
program of Arabization in process
Literacy:
age 15 and over can read and write (1990)
total population:
27%
male:
43%
female:
12%
Labor force:
6.5 million
by occupation:
agriculture 80%, industry and commerce 10%, government 6%
note:
labor shortages for almost all categories of skilled employment (1983 est.);
52% of population of working age (1985)

*Sudan, Government

Names:
conventional long form:
Republic of the Sudan
conventional short form:
Sudan
local long form:
Jumhuriyat as-Sudan
local short form:
As-Sudan
former:
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
Digraph:
SU
Type:
military civilian government suspended and martial law imposed after 30 June
1989 coup
Capital:
Khartoum
Administrative divisions:
9 states (wilayat, singular - wilayat or wilayah*); A'ali an Nil, Al Wusta*,, Al Istiwa'iyah*,,
Al Khartum, Ash Shamaliyah*, Ash Sharqiyah*, Bahr al, Ghazal, Darfur, Kurdufan
Independence:
1 January 1956 (from Egypt and UK)
Const