Lebanon (2001) | World (2003) | |
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Administrative divisions | 5 governorates (mohafazat, singular - mohafazah); Beyrouth, Ech Chimal, Ej Jnoub, El Bekaa, Jabal Loubnane | 268 nations, dependent areas, other, and miscellaneous entries |
Age structure | 0-14 years:
27.57% (male 509,975; female 490,031) 15-64 years: 65.72% (male 1,136,995; female 1,247,184) 65 years and over: 6.71% (male 110,964; female 132,625) (2001 est.) |
0-14 years: 29.2% (male 932,581,592; female 885,688,851)
15-64 years: 63.7% (male 2,009,997,089; female 1,964,938,201) 65 years and over: 7.1% (male 193,549,180; female 247,067,032) (2003 est.) note: some countries do not maintain age structure information, thus a slight discrepancy exists between the total world population and the total for world age structure |
Agriculture - products | citrus, grapes, tomatoes, apples, vegetables, potatoes, olives, tobacco; sheep, goats | - |
Airports | 8 (2000 est.) | - |
Airports - with paved runways | total:
5 over 3,047 m: 1 2,438 to 3,047 m: 2 1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 under 914 m: 1 (2000 est.) |
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Airports - with unpaved runways | total:
3 914 to 1,523 m: 2 under 914 m: 1 (2000 est.) |
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Area | total:
10,400 sq km land: 10,230 sq km water: 170 sq km |
total: 510.072 million sq km
land: 148.94 million sq km water: 361.132 million sq km note: 70.8% of the world's surface is water, 29.2% is land |
Area - comparative | about 0.7 times the size of Connecticut | land area about 16 times the size of the US |
Background | Lebanon has made progress toward rebuilding its political institutions and regaining its national sovereignty since 1991 and the end of the devastating 16-year civil war. Under the Ta'if Accord - the blueprint for national reconciliation - the Lebanese have established a more equitable political system, particularly by giving Muslims a greater say in the political process while institutionalizing sectarian divisions in the government. Since the end of the war, the Lebanese have conducted several successful elections, most of the militias have been weakened or disbanded, and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) have extended central government authority over about two-thirds of the country. Hizballah, the radical Shi'a party, retains its weapons. Syria maintains about 25,000 troops in Lebanon based mainly in Beirut, North Lebanon, and the Bekaa Valley. Syria's troop deployment was legitimized by the Arab League during Lebanon's civil war and in the Ta'if Accord. Damascus justifies its continued military presence in Lebanon by citing the continued weakness of the LAF, Beirut's requests, and the failure of the Lebanese Government to implement all of the constitutional reforms in the Ta'if Accord. Israel's withdrawal from its security zone in southern Lebanon in May of 2000, however, has emboldened some Lebanese Christians and Druze to demand that Syria withdraw its forces as well. | Globally, the 20th century was marked by: (a) two devastating world wars; (b) the Great Depression of the 1930s; (c) the end of vast colonial empires; (d) rapid advances in science and technology, from the first airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina (US) to the landing on the moon; (e) the Cold War between the Western alliance and the Warsaw Pact nations; (f) a sharp rise in living standards in North America, Europe, and Japan; (g) increased concerns about the environment, including loss of forests, shortages of energy and water, the decline in biological diversity, and air pollution; (h) the onset of the AIDS epidemic; and (i) the ultimate emergence of the US as the only world superpower. The planet's population continues to explode: from 1 billion in 1820, to 2 billion in 1930, 3 billion in 1960, 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1988, and 6 billion in 2000. For the 21st century, the continued exponential growth in science and technology raises both hopes (e.g., advances in medicine) and fears (e.g., development of even more lethal weapons of war). |
Birth rate | 20.16 births/1,000 population (2001 est.) | 20.43 births/1,000 population (2003 est.) |
Budget | revenues:
$3.31 billion expenditures: $5.55 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (2000 est.) |
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Capital | Beirut | - |
Climate | Mediterranean; mild to cool, wet winters with hot, dry summers; Lebanon mountains experience heavy winter snows | two large areas of polar climates separated by two rather narrow temperate zones form a wide equatorial band of tropical to subtropical climates |
Coastline | 225 km | 356,000 km |
Constitution | 23 May 1926, amended a number of times, most recently Charter of Lebanese National Reconciliation (Taif Accord) of October 1989 | - |
Country name | conventional long form:
Lebanese Republic conventional short form: Lebanon local long form: Al Jumhuriyah al Lubnaniyah local short form: Lubnan |
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Currency | Lebanese pound (LBP) | - |
Death rate | 6.39 deaths/1,000 population (2001 est.) | 8.83 deaths/1,000 population (2003 est.) |
Debt - external | $9.6 billion (2000 est.) | $2 trillion for less developed countries (2002 est.) |
Diplomatic representation from the US | chief of mission:
Ambassador David M. SATTERFIELD embassy: Antelias, Beirut mailing address: P. O. Box 70-840, Antelias, Beirut; PSC 815, Box 2, FPO AE 09836-0002 telephone: [961] (4) 543600, 543600 FAX: [961] (4) 544136 |
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Diplomatic representation in the US | chief of mission:
Ambassador Dr. Farid ABBOUD chancery: 2560 28th Street NW, Washington, DC 20008 telephone: [1] (202) 939-6300 FAX: [1] (202) 939-6324 consulate(s) general: Detroit, New York, and Los Angeles |
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Disputes - international | Syrian troops in northern, central, and eastern Lebanon since October 1976; Lebanese government claims Shab'a Farms area of Israeli-occupied Golan Heights as a part of Lebanon from which Hizballah conducts cross-border attacks | Globally, there are over 250,000 km of international land boundaries that separate the world's 192 independent states, along with 70 dependencies, areas of special sovereignty, and other miscellaneous entities. Maritime states have claimed limits and have so far established over 130 maritime boundaries and joint development zones to allocate ocean resources and to provide for their national security at sea. On land, ethnicity, culture, race, religion, and language have divided states into separate political entities as much as history, physical terrain, political fiat, or conquest, resulting in sometimes arbitrary and imposed boundaries. All of these factors have contributed to a wide array of boundary, borderland, and territorial disagreements that vary in intensity from unresolved or dormant to outright war. Territorial disputes may evolve from historical and/or cultural animosities, or they may be brought on by resource competition. Ethnic clashes continue to be responsible for territorial fragmentation around the world. Undemarcated, indefinite, porous, and unmanaged boundaries encourage illegal cross-border activities, uncontrolled migration, and political confrontation over boundary allocations. Other sources of contention include the use of water and mineral (especially petroleum) resources, fisheries, dams, and nuclear power plants. Many islands or island groups are also disputed, including those at sea and in streams. Nonetheless, many nations are actively cooperating to clarify, delineate, and demarcate their international borders. The tragic aspect of international discord is the impact on the sustenance and welfare of populations caught in the conflict. It is frequently left to members of the world community to cope with enormous refugee situations, and the resultant hunger, disease, and impoverishment that they create. |
Economic aid - recipient | $3.5 billion (pledges 1997-2001) | official development assistance (ODA) $50 billion |
Economy - overview | The 1975-91 civil war seriously damaged Lebanon's economic infrastructure, cut national output by half, and all but ended Lebanon's position as a Middle Eastern entrepot and banking hub. Peace enabled the central government to restore control in Beirut, begin collecting taxes, and regain access to key port and government facilities. Economic recovery was helped by a financially sound banking system and resilient small- and medium-scale manufacturers. Family remittances, banking services, manufactured and farm exports, and international aid provided the main sources of foreign exchange. Lebanon's economy has made impressive gains since the launch in 1993 of "Horizon 2000," the government's $20 billion reconstruction program. Real GDP grew 8% in 1994, 7% in 1995, 4% per year in 1996 and 1997 but slowed to 2% in 1998, -1% in 1999, and 1% in 2000. Annual inflation fell during the course of the 1990s from more than 100% to 0%, and foreign exchange reserves jumped from $1.4 billion to more than $6 billion. Burgeoning capital inflows have generated foreign payments surpluses, and the Lebanese pound has remained very stable for the past two years. Lebanon has rebuilt much of its war-torn physical and financial infrastructure. Solidere, a $2-billion firm, has managed the reconstruction of Beirut's central business district; the stock market reopened in January 1996; and international banks and insurance companies are returning. The government nonetheless faces serious challenges in the economic arena. It has funded reconstruction by tapping foreign exchange reserves and by borrowing heavily - mostly from domestic banks. The newly re-installed HARIRI government's announced policies fail to address the ever-increasing budgetary deficits and national debt burden. The gap between rich and poor has widened in the 1990s, resulting in grassroots dissatisfaction over the skewed distribution of the reconstruction's benefits. | Growth in global output (gross world product, GWP) fell from 4.8% in 2000 to 2.2% in 2001 and 2.7% in 2002. The causes: sluggishness in the US economy (21% of GWP) and in the 15 EU economies (19% of GWP); continued stagnation in the Japanese economy (7.2% of GWP); and spillover effects in the less developed regions of the world. China, the second-largest economy in the world (12% of GWP), proved an exception, continuing its rapid annual growth, officially announced as 8% but estimated by many observers as perhaps two percentage points lower. Russia (2.6% of GWP), with 4% growth, continued to make uneven progress, its GDP per capita still only one-third that of the leading industrial nations. 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 5% range of growth. 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 Indonesia, and in Canada. Externally, the central government is losing decision-making powers to international bodies. 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 the 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 participating nations. The terrorist attacks on the US on 11 September 2001 accentuate a further growing risk to global prosperity, illustrated, for example, by the reallocation of resources away from investment to anti-terrorist programs. The opening of war in March 2003 between a US-led coalition and Iraq added new uncertainties to global economic prospects. (For specific economic developments in each country of the world in 2002, see the individual country entries.) |
Electricity - consumption | 7.86 billion kWh (1999) | 13.93 trillion kWh (2001 est.) |
Electricity - exports | 0 kWh (1999) | - |
Electricity - imports | 654 million kWh (1999) | - |
Electricity - production | 7.748 billion kWh (1999) | 14.85 trillion kWh (2001 est.) |
Electricity - production by source | fossil fuel:
91.29% hydro: 8.71% nuclear: 0% other: 0% (1999) |
fossil fuel: NA%
hydro: NA% nuclear: NA% other: NA% |
Elevation extremes | lowest point:
Mediterranean Sea 0 m highest point: Qurnat as Sawda' 3,088 m |
lowest point: Bentley Subglacial Trench -2,540 m
note: in the oceanic realm, Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench is the lowest point, lying -10,924 m below the surface of the Pacific Ocean highest point: Mount Everest 8,850 m (1999 est.) |
Environment - current issues | deforestation; soil erosion; desertification; air pollution in Beirut from vehicular traffic and the burning of industrial wastes; pollution of coastal waters from raw sewage and oil spills | large areas subject to overpopulation, industrial disasters, pollution (air, water, acid rain, toxic substances), loss of vegetation (overgrazing, deforestation, desertification), loss of wildlife, soil degradation, soil depletion, erosion |
Environment - international agreements | party to:
Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation |
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Ethnic groups | Arab 95%, Armenian 4%, other 1% | - |
Exchange rates | Lebanese pounds per US dollar - 1,507.5 (January 2001), 1,507.5 (2000), 1,507.8 (1999), 1,516.1 (1998), 1,539.5 (1997), 1,571.4 (1996) | - |
Executive branch | chief of state:
President Emile LAHUD (since 24 November 1998) head of government: Prime Minister Rafiq HARIRI (since 23 October 2000); Deputy Prime Minister Issam FARES (since 23 October 2000) cabinet: Cabinet chosen by the prime minister in consultation with the president and members of the National Assembly; the current Cabinet was formed in 1998 elections: president elected by the National Assembly for a six-year term; election last held 15 October 1998 (next to be held NA 2004); prime minister and deputy prime minister appointed by the president in consultation with the National Assembly; by custom, the president is a Maronite Christian, the prime minister is a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of the legislature is a Shi'a Muslim election results: Emile LAHUD elected president; National Assembly vote - 118 votes in favor, 0 against, 10 abstentions |
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Exports | $700 million (f.o.b., 2000 est.) | 703.9 billion cu m (2001 est.) |
Exports - commodities | foodstuffs and tobacco, textiles, chemicals, precious stones, metal and metal products, electrical equipment and products, jewelry, paper and paper products | the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods and services |
Exports - partners | UAE 9%, Saudi Arabia 8%, Syria 6%, US 6%, Kuwait 6%, France 5%, Belgium 5%, Jordan 4% (1999) | US 17.4%, Germany 7.6%, UK 5.4%, France 5.1%, Japan 4.8%, China 4% (2002) |
Fiscal year | calendar year | - |
Flag description | three horizontal bands of red (top), white (double width), and red with a green and brown cedar tree centered in the white band | - |
GDP | purchasing power parity - $18.2 billion (2000 est.) | GWP (gross world product) - purchasing power parity - $49 trillion (2002 est.) |
GDP - composition by sector | agriculture:
12% industry: 27% services: 61% (1999 est.) |
agriculture: 4%
industry: 32% services: 64% (2002 est.) |
GDP - per capita | purchasing power parity - $5,000 (2000 est.) | purchasing power parity - $7,900 (2002 est.) |
GDP - real growth rate | 1% (2000 est.) | 2.7% (2001 est.) |
Geographic coordinates | 33 50 N, 35 50 E | - |
Geography - note | Nahr al Litani only major river in Near East not crossing an international boundary; rugged terrain historically helped isolate, protect, and develop numerous factional groups based on religion, clan, and ethnicity | the world is now thought to be about 4.55 billion years old, just about one-third of the 13-billion-year age estimated for the universe |
Highways | total:
7,300 km paved: 6,350 km unpaved: 950 km (1999 est.) |
total: NA km
paved: NA km unpaved: NA km |
Household income or consumption by percentage share | lowest 10%:
NA% highest 10%: NA% |
lowest 10%: NA%
highest 10%: NA% |
Illicit drugs | inconsequential producer of hashish; a Lebanese/Syrian eradication campaign started in the early 1990s has practically eliminated the opium and cannabis crops | cocaine: worldwide, coca is grown on an estimated 205,450 hectares - almost exclusively in South America with 70% in Colombia; potential cocaine production during 2002 is estimated at 938 metric tons (or 1,200 metric tons of export quality cocaine at an average of 78% purity); coca eradication programs continue in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru, and 292 metric tons of export quality cocaine are documented to have been seized in 2002; consumption of export quality cocaine is estimated to have been 875 metric tons
opiates: cultivation of opium poppy occurred on an estimated 141,213 hectares in 2002 and potentially produced 2,183 metric tons of opium - which conceivably could be converted to the equivalent of 238 metric tons of pure heroin; opium eradication programs have been undertaken in Afghanistan, Burma, Colombia, Mexico, Pakistan, Thailand, and Vietnam, and the annual average for opiates seized worldwide over the past five years (1998-2002) has been 45 metric tons of pure heroin equivalent; estimates for average annual consumption over this time period are 315 metric tons pure heroin equivalent |
Imports | $6.2 billion (f.o.b., 2000 est.) | 697.5 billion cu m (2001 est.) |
Imports - commodities | foodstuffs, machinery and transport equipment, consumer goods, chemicals, textiles, metals, fuels, agricultural foods | the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods and services |
Imports - partners | Italy 13%, France 11%, Germany 8%, US 7%, Switzerland 6%, Japan, UK, Syria (1999) | US 11.2%, Germany 9.2%, China 7%, Japan 6.8%, France 4.7%, UK 4% (2002) |
Independence | 22 November 1943 (from League of Nations mandate under French administration) | - |
Industrial production growth rate | NA% | 3% (2002 est.) |
Industries | banking; food processing; jewelry; cement; textiles; mineral and chemical products; wood and furniture products; oil refining; metal fabricating | dominated by the onrush of technology, especially in computers, robotics, telecommunications, and medicines and medical equipment; most of these advances take place in OECD nations; only a small portion of non-OECD countries have succeeded in rapidly adjusting to these technological forces; the accelerated development of new industrial (and agricultural) technology is complicating already grim environmental problems |
Infant mortality rate | 28.35 deaths/1,000 live births (2001 est.) | total: 51.38 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 53.81 deaths/1,000 live births female: 48.83 deaths/1,000 live births (2003 est.) |
Inflation rate (consumer prices) | 0% (2000 est.) | developed countries 1% to 4% typically; developing countries 5% to 60% typically; national inflation rates vary widely in individual cases, from declining prices in Japan to hyperinflation in several Third World countries |
International organization participation | ABEDA, ACCT, AFESD, AL, AMF, CCC, ESCWA, FAO, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, ISO (correspondent), ITU, NAM, OAS (observer), OIC, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNRWA, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO (observer) | - |
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) | 22 (2000) | 10,350 (2000 est.) |
Irrigated land | 860 sq km (1993 est.) | 2,714,320 sq km (1998 est.) |
Judicial branch | four Courts of Cassation (three courts for civil and commercial cases and one court for criminal cases); Constitutional Council (called for in Ta'if Accord - rules on constitutionality of laws); Supreme Council (hears charges against the president and prime minister as needed) | - |
Labor force | 1.3 million (1999 est.)
note: in addition, there are as many as 1 million foreign workers (1997 est.) |
NA |
Labor force - by occupation | services NA%, industry NA%, agriculture NA% | agriculture NA%, industry NA%, services NA% |
Land boundaries | total:
454 km border countries: Israel 79 km, Syria 375 km |
the land boundaries in the world total 250,472 km (not counting shared boundaries twice) |
Land use | arable land:
18% permanent crops: 9% permanent pastures: 1% forests and woodland: 8% other: 64% (1996 est.) |
arable land: 10.58%
permanent crops: 1% other: 88.42% (1998 est.) |
Languages | Arabic (official), French, English, Armenian | Chinese, Mandarin 14.37%, Hindi 6.02%, English 5.61%, Spanish 5.59%, Bengali 3.4%, Portuguese 2.63%, Russian 2.75%, Japanese 2.06%, German, Standard 1.64%, Korean 1.28%, French 1.27% (2000 est.)
note: percents are for "first language" speakers only |
Legal system | mixture of Ottoman law, canon law, Napoleonic code, and civil law; no judicial review of legislative acts; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction | all members of the UN plus Switzerland are parties to the statute that established the International Court of Justice (ICJ) or World Court |
Legislative branch | unicameral National Assembly or Majlis Alnuwab (Arabic) or Assemblee Nationale (French) (128 seats; members elected by popular vote on the basis of sectarian proportional representation to serve four-year terms)
elections: last held 27 August and 3 September 2000 (next to be held NA 2004) election results: percent of vote by party - Muslim 57% (of which Sunni 25%, Sh'ite 25%, Druze 6%, Alawite less than 1%), Christian 43% (of which Maronite 23%); seats by party - Muslim 64 (of which Sunni 27, Sh'ite 27, Druze 8, Alawite 2), Christian 64 (of which Maronite 34) |
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Life expectancy at birth | total population:
71.52 years male: 69.13 years female: 74.03 years (2001 est.) |
total population: 63.95 years
male: 62 years female: 70.23 years (2003 est.) |
Literacy | definition:
age 15 and over can read and write total population: 86.4% male: 90.8% female: 82.2% (1997 est.) |
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 77% male: 83% female: 71% (1995 est.) |
Location | Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Israel and Syria | - |
Map references | Middle East | Physical Map of the World, Political Map of the World, Standard Time Zones of the World |
Maritime claims | territorial sea:
12 NM |
a variety of situations exist, but in general, most countries make the following claims: contiguous zone - 24 NM; continental shelf - 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation, or 200 NM or to the edge of the continental margin; exclusive fishing zone - 200 NM; exclusive economic zone - 200 NM; territorial sea - 12 NM; boundary situations with neighboring states prevent many countries from extending their fishing or economic zones to a full 200 NM; 43 nations and other areas that are landlocked include Afghanistan, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Czech Republic, Ethiopia, Holy See (Vatican City), Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malawi, Mali, Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal, Niger, Paraguay, Rwanda, San Marino, Slovakia, Swaziland, Switzerland, Tajikistan, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, West Bank, Zambia, Zimbabwe; two of these, Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan, are doubly landlocked |
Merchant marine | total:
71 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 379,705 GRT/592,672 DWT ships by type: bulk 10, cargo 42, chemical tanker 1, combination bulk 1, combination ore/oil 1, container 4, liquefied gas 1, livestock carrier 5, refrigerated cargo 1, roll on/roll off 2, vehicle carrier 3 note: includes some foreign-owned ships registered here as a flag of convenience: Netherlands 1, Syria 1 (2000 est.) |
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Military branches | Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF; includes Army, Navy, and Air Force) | - |
Military expenditures - dollar figure | $343 million (FY99/00) | aggregate real expenditure on arms worldwide in 1999 remained at approximately the 1998 level, about three-quarters of a trillion dollars (1999 est.) |
Military expenditures - percent of GDP | 4.8% (FY99/00) | roughly 2% of gross world product (1999 est.) |
Military manpower - availability | males age 15-49:
980,412 (2001 est.) |
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Military manpower - fit for military service | males age 15-49:
605,332 (2001 est.) |
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National holiday | Independence Day, 22 November (1943) | - |
Nationality | noun:
Lebanese (singular and plural) adjective: Lebanese |
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Natural hazards | dust storms, sandstorms | large areas subject to severe weather (tropical cyclones), natural disasters (earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions) |
Natural resources | limestone, iron ore, salt, water-surplus state in a water-deficit region, arable land | the rapid depletion of nonrenewable mineral resources, the depletion of forest areas and wetlands, the extinction of animal and plant species, and the deterioration in air and water quality (especially in Eastern Europe, the former USSR, and China) pose serious long-term problems that governments and peoples are only beginning to address |
Net migration rate | 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2001 est.) | - |
Pipelines | crude oil 72 km (none in operation) | - |
Political parties and leaders | political party activity is organized along largely sectarian lines; numerous political groupings exist, consisting of individual political figures and followers motivated by religious, clan, and economic considerations | - |
Political pressure groups and leaders | NA | - |
Population | 3,627,774 (July 2001 est.) | 6,302,309,691 (July 2003 est.) |
Population below poverty line | 28% (1999 est.) | - |
Population growth rate | 1.38% (2001 est.) | 1.17% (2003 est.) |
Ports and harbors | Antilyas, Batroun, Beirut, Chekka, El Mina, Ez Zahrani, Jbail, Jounie, Naqoura, Sidon, Tripoli, Tyre | Chiba, Houston, Kawasaki, Kobe, Marseille, Mina' al Ahmadi (Kuwait), New Orleans, New York, Rotterdam, Yokohama |
Radio broadcast stations | AM 20, FM 22, shortwave 4 (1998) | AM NA, FM NA, shortwave NA |
Radios | 2.85 million (1997) | - |
Railways | total:
399 km (mostly unusable because of damage in civil war) standard gauge: 317 km 1.435-m narrow gauge: 82 km (1999) |
total: 1,122,650 km includes about 190,000 to 195,000 km of electrified routes of which 147,760 km are in Europe, 24,509 km in the Far East, 11,050 km in Africa, 4,223 km in South America, and 4,160 km in North America; note - fastest speed in daily service is 300 km/hr attained by France's Societe Nationale des Chemins-de-Fer Francais (SNCF) Le Train a Grande Vitesse (TGV) - Atlantique line
broad gauge: 251,153 km standard gauge: 710,754 km narrow gauge: 239,430 km |
Religions | Muslim 70% (including Shi'a, Sunni, Druze, Isma'ilite, Alawite or Nusayri), Christian 30% (including Orthodox Christian, Catholic, Protestant), Jewish NEGL% | Christians 32.79% (of which Roman Catholics 17.33%, Protestants 5.62%, Orthodox 3.51%, Anglicans 1.31%), Muslims 19.6%, Hindus 13.31%, Buddhists 5.88%, Sikhs 0.38%, Jews 0.24%, other religions 12.83%, non-religious 12.53%, atheists 2.44% (2001 est.) |
Sex ratio | at birth:
1.05 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 0.91 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.84 male(s)/female total population: 0.94 male(s)/female (2001 est.) |
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.78 male(s)/female total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2003 est.) |
Suffrage | 21 years of age; compulsory for all males; authorized for women at age 21 with elementary education | - |
Telephone system | general assessment:
telecommunications system severely damaged by civil war; rebuilding well underway domestic: primarily microwave radio relay and cable international: satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 1 Atlantic Ocean) (erratic operations); coaxial cable to Syria; microwave radio relay to Syria but inoperable beyond Syria to Jordan; 3 submarine coaxial cables |
general assessment: NA
domestic: NA international: NA |
Telephones - main lines in use | 700,000 (1999) | NA |
Telephones - mobile cellular | 580,000 (1999) | NA |
Television broadcast stations | 15 (plus 5 repeaters) (1995) | NA |
Terrain | narrow coastal plain; Al Biqa' (Bekaa Valley) separates Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon Mountains | the greatest ocean depth is the Mariana Trench at 10,924 m in the Pacific Ocean |
Total fertility rate | 2.05 children born/woman (2001 est.) | 2.65 children born/woman (2003 est.) |
Unemployment rate | 18% (1997 est.) | 30% combined unemployment and underemployment in many non-industrialized countries; developed countries typically 4%-12% unemployment |
Waterways | none | - |