rosion; desertification
Note:
controls Bab el Mandeb, the strait linking the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden,
one of world's most active shipping lanes

*Yemen, People

Population:
10,742,395 (July 1993 est.)
Population growth rate:
3.31% (1993 est.)
Birth rate:
51 births/1,000 population (1993 est.)
Death rate:
15.37 deaths/1,000 population (1993 est.)
Net migration rate:
-2.56 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1993 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
115.6 deaths/1,000 live births (1993 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population:
50.94 years
male:
49.83 years
female:
52.11 years (1993 est.)
Total fertility rate: 7.27 children born/woman (1993 est.)
Nationality:
noun:
Yemeni(s)
adjective:
Yemeni
Ethnic divisions:
predominantly Arab; Afro-Arab concentrations in coastal locations; South
Asians in southern regions; small European communities in major metropolitan
areas; 60,000 (est.) Somali refugees encamped near Aden
Religions:
Muslim (including Sha'fi, Sunni, and Zaydi Shi'a), Jewish, Christian, Hindu
Languages:
Arabic
Literacy:
age 15 and over can read and write (1990)
total population:
38%
male:
53%
female:
26%
Labor force:
North:
NA
by occupation:
agriculture and herding 70%, expatriate laborers 30% (est.)
South:
477,000
by occupation:
agriculture 45.2%, services 21.2%, construction 13.4%, industry 10.6%,
commerce and other 9.6% (1983)

*Yemen, Government

Names:
conventional long form:
Republic of Yemen
conventional short form:
Yemen
local long form:
Al Jumhuriyah al Yamaniyah
local short form:
Al Yaman
Digraph:
YM
Type:
republic
Capital:
Sanaa
Administrative divisions:
17 governorates (muhafazat, singular - muhafazah); Abyan, 'Adan, Al Bayda',
Al Hudaydah, Al Jawf, Al Mahrah, Al Mahwit, Dhamar, Hadramawt, Hajjah, Ibb,
Lahij, Ma'rib, Sa'dah, San'a', Shabwah, Ta'izz
note:
there may be a new capital district of San'a'
Independence:
22 May 1990 Republic of Yemen was established on 22 May 1990 with the merger
of the Yemen Arab Republic {Yemen (Sanaa) or North Yemen} and the
Marxist-dominated People's Democratic Republic of Yemen {Yemen (Aden) or
South Yemen}; previously North Yemen had become independent on NA November
1918 (from the Ottoman Empire) and South Yemen had become independent on 30
November 1967 (from the UK)
Constitution:
16 April 1991
Legal system:
bas