ACOG - Saudi Arabia  - IBM

Geography

Location: Middle East, bordering the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, north of Yemen

Area:
total area: 1,960,582 sq km
land area: 1,960,582 sq km
comparative area: slightly less than one-fourth the size of the US

Land boundaries: total 4,415 km, Iraq 814 km, Jordan 728 km, Kuwait 222 km, Oman 676km, Qatar 60 km, UAE 457 km, Yemen 1,458 km

Coastline: 2,640 km


People

Population: 18,729,576 (July 1995 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 43% (female 3,952,573; male 4,065,224)
15-64 years: 55% (female 4,078,001; male 6,219,737)
65 years and over: 2% (female 203,372; male 210,669)

Population growth rate: 3.68% (1995 est.)

Birth rate: 38.78 births/1,000 population

Death rate: 5.54 deaths/1,000 population

Net migration rate: 3.56 migrant(s)/1,000 population

Infant mortality rate: 48.9 deaths/1,000 live births

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 68.5 years
male: 66.79 years
female: 70.3 years

Total fertility rate: 6.48 children born/woman

Ethnic divisions: Arab 90%, Afro-Asian 10%

Religions: Muslim 100%

Languages: Arabic

Literacy: age 15 and over can read and write (1990)
total population: 62%
male: 73%
female: 48%


Government

Names:
conventional long form: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
conventional short form: Saudi Arabia

Type: monarchy

Capital: Riyadh

Independence: 23 September 1932 (unification)

Constitution: none; governed according to Shari'a (Islamic law)


Economy

National product: GDP - purchasing power parity - $173.1 billion

National product real growth rate: -3%

National product per capita: $9,510

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 1%

Unemployment rate: 6.5%

Electricity:
capacity: 17,550,000 kW
production: 46 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 2,430 kWh



Olympic Factoid
Pin trading was one of the most popular Olympic sports, with more than 1.2 million pins changing hands during the Games in the Coca Cola Pin Trading Center at Centennial Olympic Park.