Background: 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; (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 environmental degradation including deforestation, energy and water shortages, declining biological diversity, and air pollution; and (h) the ultimate emergence of the US as the only world superpower. The planet's population continues to expand at a fast rate: from 1 billion in 1820 to 2 billion in 1930, 3 billion in 1960, 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1987, 6 billion in 1999, 7 billion in 2012, and 8 billion in 2022. For the 21st century, the continued exponential growth in science and technology raises both hopes (e.g., advances in medicine and agriculture) and fears (e.g., development of even more lethal weapons of war).

Area
Total: 510.072 million km²
Land: 148.94 million km²
Water: 361,899,999 km²
Note: 70.9% of the world's surface is water, 29.1% is land
Comparative: land area about 16 times the size of the US
Country comparison: the land boundaries in the Gheos Worldguide total 279,035.5 km (not counting shared boundaries twice); two nations, China and Russia, each border 14 other countries
Country comparison note 1: the precision of the total is somewhat misleading, since one cannot accurately measure every river meander along a boundary; a number rounded slightly higher -- to 280,000 km -- has been coordinated with and approved by the US State Department
Country comparison note 2: 46 nations and other areas are landlocked, these include: Afghanistan, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Czechia, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Holy See (Vatican City), Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malawi, Mali, Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal, Niger, Paraguay, Rwanda, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, South Sudan, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, West Bank, Zambia, Zimbabwe; two of these, Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan, are doubly landlocked
Country comparison note 3: worldwide, some one-quarter of interior (non-coastal) borders are rivers; South America with 43% leads the continents, followed by North America with 32%, Africa with 30%, Europe with 23%, and Asia with 18%; Australia has no interior national river borders

Land boundaries: the land boundaries in the Gheos worldguide total 279,035.5 km (not counting shared boundaries twice); two nations, China and Russia, each border 14 other countries
Note 1: the precision of the total is somewhat misleading, since one cannot accurately measure every river meander along a boundary; a number rounded slightly higher -- to 280,000 km -- has been coordinated with and approved by the US State Department
Note 2: 46 nations and other areas are landlocked, these include: Afghanistan, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Czechia, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Holy See (Vatican City), Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malawi, Mali, Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal, Niger, Paraguay, Rwanda, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, South Sudan, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, West Bank, Zambia, Zimbabwe; two of these, Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan, are doubly landlocked
Note 3: worldwide, some one-quarter of interior (non-coastal) borders are rivers; South America with 43% leads the continents, followed by North America with 32%, Africa with 30%, Europe with 23%, and Asia with 18%; Australia has no interior national river borders

Coastline: 356,000 km
Note: 95 nations and other entities are islands that border no other countries, they include: American Samoa, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Ashmore and Cartier Islands, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Baker Island, Barbados, Bermuda, Bouvet Island, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cabo Verde, Cayman Islands, Christmas Island, Clipperton Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Comoros, Cook Islands, Coral Sea Islands, Cuba, Curacao, Cyprus, Dominica, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Faroe Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, French Southern and Antarctic Lands, Greenland, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Howland Island, Iceland, Isle of Man, Jamaica, Jan Mayen, Japan, Jarvis Island, Jersey, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Kiribati, Madagascar, Maldives, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mayotte, Federated States of Micronesia, Midway Islands, Montserrat, Nauru, Navassa Island, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Palmyra Atoll, Paracel Islands, Philippines, Pitcairn Islands, Puerto Rico, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Singapore, Sint Maarten, Solomon Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Spratly Islands, Sri Lanka, Svalbard, Taiwan, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Virgin Islands, Wake Island, Wallis and Futuna

Maritime claims: a variety of situations exist, but in general, most countries make the following claims measured from the mean low-tide baseline as described in the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea: territorial sea - 12 nm, contiguous zone - 24 nm, and exclusive economic zone - 200 nm; additional zones provide for exploitation of continental shelf resources and an exclusive fishing zone; boundary situations with neighboring states prevent many countries from extending their fishing or economic zones to a full 200 nm

Climate:

Terrain: tremendous variation of terrain may be found on each of the continents, and a compilation of terrain extremes can be found in the World 'Elevation' entry; the world's ocean floors also display extraordinary variation -- check the 'Bathymetry' and 'Major surface currents' entries under each of the five ocean entries (Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, Pacific, and Southern) for further information on oceanic environs.
Note: Top ten world caves: compiled from 'Geography' - under various country entries where more details may be found; largest cave: Son Doong in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, Vietnam, is the world's largest cave (greatest cross sectional area) and is the largest known cave passage by volume; it currently measures a total of 38.5 million m³ (about 1.35 billion cu ft); it connects to Thung cave, but not yet officially -- when recognized, it will add an additional 1.6 million m³ in volume; largest ice cave: the Eisriesenwelt (Ice Giants World) inside the Hochkogel mountain near Werfen, Austria, is the world's largest and longest ice cave system at 42 km (26 mi); longest cave: Mammoth Cave in west-central Kentucky is the world's longest known cave system with more than 650 km (405 mi) of surveyed passageways; longest salt cave: the Malham Cave in Mount Sodom in Israel is the world's longest salt cave at 10 km (6 mi); its survey is not complete, so its recorded length will eventually increase; longest underwater cave: the Sac Actun cave system in Mexico is the longest underwater cave in the world at 348 km (216 mi), and the second longest cave worldwide; longest lava tube cave: Kazumura Cave on the island of Hawaii is the world's longest and deepest lava tube cave; it has been surveyed at 66 km (41 mi) long and 1,102 m (3,614 ft) deep; deepest cave: Veryovkina Cave in the country of Georgia is the world's deepest cave, plunging down 2,212 m (7,257 ft); deepest underwater cave: the Hranice Abyss in Czechia is the world's deepest surveyed underwater cave at 404 m (1,325 ft); its survey is not complete, and it could be 800-1,200 m deep; largest cave chamber: the Miao Room in the Gebihe cave system in China's Ziyun Getu He Chuandong National Park has about 10.78 million m³ (380.7 million cu ft) of volume; largest bat cave: Bracken Cave outside San Antonio, Texas, is the world's largest bat cave; an estimated 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats roost in the cave from March to October, making it the world's largest known concentration of mammals; bonus 'cave' - the world's largest sinkhole: the Xiaoxhai Tiankeng sinkhole in Chongqing Municipality, China is 660 m deep, with a volume of 130 million m³

Elevation
Highest point: Mount Everest 8,849 m
Lowest point: Denman Glacier (Antarctica) more than -3,500 m (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)
Mean elevation:
Note:

Irrigated land: 3,242,917 km² (2012 est.)

Major rivers
By length in km: top ten longest rivers: Nile (Africa) 6,650 km; Amazon (South America) 6,436 km; Yangtze (Asia) 6,300 km; Mississippi-Missouri (North America) 6,275 km; Yenisey-Angara (Asia) 5,539 km; Huang He/Yellow (Asia) 5,464 km; Ob-Irtysh (Asia) 5,410 km; Congo (Africa) 4,700 km; Amur (Asia) 4,444 km; Lena (Asia) 4,400 km
By length in km note: there are 21 countries without rivers: three in Africa (Comoros, Djibouti, Libya), one in the Americas (Bahamas), eight in Asia (Bahrain, Kuwait, Maldives, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen), three in Europe (Malta, Monaco, Holy See), and six in Oceania (Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Tonga, Tuvalu); these countries also do not have natural lakes

Major watersheds area km²:

Total renewable water resources: 54 trillion m³ (2011 est.)

Natural hazards: large areas of the world are subject to severe weather (tropical cyclones) and natural disasters (earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions)
Volcanism:
Note 1:
Note 2:

Geography
Note 1: the World is now thought to be about 4.55 billion years old, just about one-third of the 13.8-billion-year age estimated for the universe; the earliest widely accepted date for life appearing on Earth is 3.48 billion years ago
Note 2: although earthquakes can strike anywhere at any time, the vast majority occur in three large zones of the Earth; the world's greatest earthquake belt, the Circum-Pacific Belt (popularly referred to as the Ring of Fire), is the zone of active volcanoes and earthquake epicenters bordering the Pacific Ocean; about 90% of the world's earthquakes (81% of the largest earthquakes) and some 75% of the world's volcanoes occur within the Ring of Fire; the belt extends northward from Chile, along the South American coast, through Central America, Mexico, the western US, southern Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, to Japan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, island groups in the southwestern Pacific, and New Zealand; the second prominent belt, the Alpide, extends from Java to Sumatra, northward along the mountains of Burma, then eastward through the Himalayas, the Mediterranean, and out into the Atlantic Ocean; it accounts for about 17% of the world's largest earthquakes; the third important belt follows the long Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Note 3: information on the origin sites for many of the world's major food crops may be found in the 'Geography - note for the following countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, and the United States

Population
Distribution: six of the world's seven continents are widely and permanently inhabited; Asia is the most populous continent with about 60% of the world's population (China and India together account for over 35%); Africa comes in second with over 15%, Europe has about 10%, North America 8%, South America almost 6%, and Oceania less than 1%; the harsh conditions on Antarctica prevent any permanent habitation
Total: 8,057,236,243
Male: 4,046,854,454
Female: 4,010,381,789 (2024 est.)
Growth rate: 1.03% (2021 est.)
Growth rate note: this rate results in about 154 net additions to the worldwide population every minute or 2.6 people every second

Languages: most-spoken language: English 18.8%, Mandarin Chinese 13.8%, Hindi 7.5%, Spanish 6.9%, French 3.4%, Arabic 3.4%, Bengali 3.4%, Russian 3.2%, Portuguese 3.2%, Urdu 2.9% (2022 est.)
Most-spoken first language: Mandarin Chinese 12.3%, Spanish 6%, English 5.1%, Arabic 5.1%, Hindi 3.5%, Bengali 3.3%, Portuguese 3%, Russian 2.1%, Japanese 1.7%, Punjabi, Western 1.3%, Javanese 1.1% (2018 est.)
Note 1: the six UN languages - Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, Russian, and Spanish (Castilian) - are the mother tongue or second language of about 49.6% of the world's population (2022), and are the official languages in more than half the states in the world; some 400 languages have more than a million first-language speakers (2018)
Note 2: all told, there are estimated to be 7,168 living languages spoken in the world (2023); approximately 80% of these languages are spoken by less than 100,000 people; about 150 languages are spoken by fewer than 10 people; communities that are isolated from each other in mountainous regions often develop multiple languages; Papua New Guinea, for example, boasts about 840 separate languages (2018)
Note 3: approximately 2,300 languages are spoken in Asia, 2,140, in Africa, 1,310 in the Pacific, 1,060 in the Americas, and 290 in Europe (2020)

Religions: Christian 31.1%, Muslim 24.9%, Hindu 15.2%, Buddhist 6.6%, folk religions 5.6%, Jewish <1%, other <1%, unaffiliated 15.6% (2020 est.)

Age structure
0-14 years: 24.5% (male 1,018,005,046/female 958,406,907)
15-64 years: 65.2% (male 2,658,595,672/female 2,592,930,538)
65 years and over: 10.3% (2024 est.) (male 370,253,736/female 459,044,344)

Dependency ratios
Total dependency ratio: 54.1
Youth dependency ratio: 39.3
Elderly dependency ratio: 14.8
Potential support ratio: 7 (2021 est.)

Median age
Total: 31 years (2020 est.)
Male: 30.3 years
Female: 31.8 years

Population growth rate: 1.03% (2021 est.)
Note: this rate results in about 154 net additions to the worldwide population every minute or 2.6 people every second

Birth rate: 17 births/1,000 population (2024 est.)
Note: this rate results in about 260 worldwide births per minute or 4.3 births every second

Death rate: 7.9 deaths/1,000 population (2024 est.)
Note: this rate results in about 121 worldwide deaths per minute or 2 deaths every second

Population distribution: six of the world's seven continents are widely and permanently inhabited; Asia is the most populous continent with about 60% of the world's population (China and India together account for over 35%); Africa comes in second with over 15%, Europe has about 10%, North America 8%, South America almost 6%, and Oceania less than 1%; the harsh conditions on Antarctica prevent any permanent habitation

Urbanization
Urban population: 57.5% of total population (2023)
Rate of urbanization: 1.73% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

Environment
Current issues: large areas of the world are subject to overpopulation, industrial disasters, pollution (air, water, acid rain, toxic substances), loss of vegetation (overgrazing, deforestation, desertification), loss of biodiversity; soil degradation, soil depletion, erosion; ozone layer depletion; waste disposal; global warming becoming a greater concern

Sex ratio
At birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
0-14 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.81 male(s)/female
Total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2024 est.)

Maternal mortality ratio: 211 deaths/100,000 live births (2017 est.)

Infant mortality rate
Total: 28.3 deaths/1,000 live births (2024 est.)

Life expectancy at birth
Total population: 70.5 years (2020)
Male: 68.4 years
Female: 72.6 years

Total fertility rate: 2.42 children born/woman (2020 est.)

Drinking water source
Improved urban: 96.5% of population
Unimproved rural: 15.3% of population
Unimproved total: 8.9% of population (2015 est.)
Unimproved urban: 3.5% of population

Sanitation facility access
Improved urban: 82.3% of population
Improved rural: 50.5% of population
Improved total: 67.7% of population
Unimproved urban: 17.7% of population
Unimproved rural: 49.5% of population
Unimproved total: 32.3% of population (2015 est.)

Literacy
Definition: age 15 and over can read and write
Total population: 86.7%
Male: 90.1%
Female: 83.3% (2020)
Note: more than three quarters of the world's 750 million illiterate adults are found in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa; of all the illiterate adults in the world, almost two thirds are women (2016)

School life expectancy primary to tertiary education
Total: 13 years
Male: 13 years
Female: 13 years (2020)

Youth unemployment
Rate ages 15 24 total: 13.8% (2023 est.)
Rate ages 15 24 male: 13.4% (2023 est.)
Rate ages 15 24 female: 15.4% (2023 est.)
Rate ages 15 24 note: % of labor force ages 15-24 seeking employment

Capital
Note 1: in some instances, the time zones pertain to portions of a country that lie overseas
Note 2: in 1851, the British set their prime meridian (0° longitude) through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England; this meridian became the international standard in 1884 and thus the basis for the standard time zones of the world; today, GMT is officially known as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and is also referred to as 'Zulu time'; UTC is the basis for all civil time, with the world divided into time zones expressed as positive or negative differences from UTC
Note 3: each time zone is based on 15° starting from the prime meridian; in theory, there are 24 time zones based on the solar day, but there are now upward of 40 because of fractional hour offsets that adjust for various political and physical geographic realities; see the Standard Time Zones of the World map included with the World and Regional Maps
Daylight saving time: some 67 countries -- including most of the world's leading industrialized nations -- use daylight savings time (DST) in at least a portion of the country; China, Japan, India, and Russia are major industrialized countries that do not use DST; Asia and Africa generally do not observe DST, and it is generally not observed near the equator, where sunrise and sunset times do not vary enough to justify it; some countries observe DST only in certain regions; only a minority of the world's population -- about 20% -- uses DST

Administrative divisions: 197 countries, 69 dependent areas and other entities

Legal system: the legal systems of nearly all countries are modeled on elements of five main types: civil law (including French law, the Napoleonic Code, Roman law, Roman-Dutch law, and Spanish law), common law (including English and US law), customary law, mixed or pluralistic law, and religious law (including Islamic sharia law); an additional type of legal system -- international law -- governs the conduct of independent nations in their relationships with one another

International law organization participation: all members of the UN are parties to the statute that established the International Court of Justice (ICJ) or World Court; states parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICCt) are those countries that have ratified or acceded to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the Court; as of May 2019, a total of 122 countries have accepted jurisdiction of the ICCt (see the reference guide on International Organizations and Groups for clarification on the differing mandates of the ICJ and ICCt)

Executive branch
Chief of state: there are 27 countries with royal families in the world: most are in Asia (13) and Europe (10), three are in Africa, and one in Oceania; monarchies by continent are as follows: Asia (Bahrain, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, United Arab Emirates); Europe (Belgium, Denmark, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom); Africa (Eswatini, Lesotho, Morocco); Oceania (Tonga)
Note: 2: the sovereign of Great Britain is also the monarch for 14 of the countries (including Australia, Canada, Jamaica, New Zealand) that make up the Commonwealth; that brings to 43 the total number of countries with some type of monarchies

Legislative branch
Note: there are 230 political entities with legislative bodies; of these 144 are unicameral (a single “house”) and 86 are bicameral (both upper and lower houses); 33 territories, possessions, or other special administrative units have their own governing bodies

Flag description: while a 'World' flag does not exist, the flag of the United Nations (UN) -- adopted on 7 December 1946 -- has been used on occasion to represent the entire planet; technically, however, it only represents the international organization itself; the flag displays the official emblem of the UN in white on a blue background; the emblem design shows a world map in an azimuthal equidistant projection centered on the North Pole, with the image flanked by two olive branches crossed below; blue was selected as the color to represent peace, in contrast to the red usually associated with war; the map projection chosen includes all of the continents except Antarctica
Note 1: the flags of 12 nations -- Austria, Botswana, Georgia, Jamaica, Japan, Laos, Latvia, Micronesia, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Switzerland, and Thailand -- have no top or bottom and may be flown with either long edge on top without any notice being taken
Note 2: the most common colors found on national flags are as follows: red (including deep red; ~75%), white (~70%), and blue (including light blue; ~50%); these three colors are so prevalent that there are only two countries, Jamaica and Sri Lanka, that do not include one of them on their flag; the next three most popular colors are yellow/gold and green (both ~45%) and black (~30%)
Note 3: flags composed of three colors are by far the most common type and, of those, the red-white-blue combination is the most widespread

National anthem
Name: virtually every country has a national anthem; most (but not all) anthems have lyrics, which are usually in the national or most common language of the country; states with more than one national language may offer several versions of their anthem
Note: the world's oldest national anthem is the 'Het Wilhelmus' (The William) of the Netherlands, which dates to the 17th century; the first national anthem to be officially adopted (1795) was 'La Marseillaise' (The Song of Marseille) of France; Japan claims to have the world's shortest national anthem, entitled 'Kimigayo' (The Emperor's Reign), it consists of 11 measures of music (the lyrics are also the world's oldest, dating to the 10th century or earlier); the world's longest national anthem in terms of lyrics is that of Greece, 'Ymnos eis tin Eleftherian' (Hymn to Liberty) with 158 stanzas -- only two of which are used; the world's longest national anthem in terms of music is that of Uruguay, 'Himno Nacional' (National Anthem of Uruguay) with 105 bars (almost five minutes) -- generally only the first verse and chorus are sung; both Denmark and New Zealand have two official national anthems

National heritage
Total world heritage sites: 1,223 (952 cultural, 231 natural, 40 mixed) (2024)
Note: a summary of every country's UNESCO World Heritage Sites (i.e., country-specific 'Wonders') may be found in individual country 'National heritage' entries; a Wonders of the World field may be found under World > Geography > 'Wonders of the World'

Real gdp purchasing power parity: $165.804 trillion (2023 est.); $160.74 trillion (2022 est.); $155.603 trillion (2021 est.)
Note: data in 2021 dollars

Real gdp growth rate: 2.72% (2023 est.); 3.09% (2022 est.); 6.26% (2021 est.)
Note: annual GDP % growth based on constant local currency

Real gdp per capita: $20,700 (2023 est.); $20,200 (2022 est.); $19,700 (2021 est.)
Note: data in 2021 dollars

Gdp composition by end use
Household consumption: 55.3% (2022 est.)
Government consumption: 16.5% (2022 est.)
Investment in fixed capital: 26.1% (2022 est.)
Investment in inventories: 1.4% (2022 est.)
Exports of goods and services: 29.3% (2023 est.)
Imports of goods and services: -28.7% (2023 est.)
Note: figures may not total 100% due to rounding or gaps in data collection

Gdp composition by sector of origin
Agriculture: 4.1% (2023 est.)
Industry: 26.4% (2023 est.)
Services: 61.8% (2022 est.)
Note: figures may not total 100% due to non-allocated consumption not captured in sector-reported data

Agriculture products: the whole range of agricultural products; top ten agricultural products by global production tonnage: sugarcane, maize, wheat, rice, milk, oil palm fruit, potatoes, soybeans, cassava, vegetables (2022)

Industries: 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 technologies is complicating already grim environmental problems

Industrial production growth rate: 1.95% (2023 est.)
Note: annual % change in industrial value added based on constant local currency

Labor force: 3.628 billion (2023 est.)
Note: number of people ages 15 or older who are employed or seeking work

Unemployment rate: 4.96% (2023 est.); 5.26% (2022 est.); 6.03% (2021 est.)
Note: % of labor force seeking employment

Youth unemployment
Rate ages 15 24 total: 13.8% (2023 est.)
Rate ages 15 24 male: 13.4% (2023 est.)
Rate ages 15 24 female: 15.4% (2023 est.)
Rate ages 15 24 note: % of labor force ages 15-24 seeking employment

Budget
Revenues: $21.68 trillion (2017 est.)
Expenditures: $23.81 trillion (2017 est.)

Taxes and other revenues: 14.68% (of GDP) (2022 est.)
Note: central government tax revenue as a % of GDP

Public debt: 67.2% of GDP (2017 est.)

Inflation rate consumer prices: 5.8% (2023 est.); 7.99% (2022 est.); 3.45% (2021 est.)
Note: annual % change based on consumer prices

Exports: $31.132 trillion (2023 est.); $31.696 trillion (2022 est.); $28.359 trillion (2021 est.)
Note: balance of payments - exports of goods and services in current dollars
Commodities:

Imports: $30.184 trillion (2023 est.); $30.874 trillion (2022 est.); $27.27 trillion (2021 est.)
Note: balance of payments - imports of goods and services in current dollars
Commodities:

Electricity
Access electrification total population: 91.4% (2022 est.)
Access electrification urban areas: 97.7%
Access electrification rural areas: 84%
Installed generating capacity: 8.483 billion kW (2022 est.)
Consumption: 26.587 trillion kWh (2022 est.)
Exports: 805.371 billion kWh (2022 est.)
Imports: 811.992 billion kWh (2022 est.)
Transmission/distribution losses: 2.064 trillion kWh (2022 est.)
Generation sources fossil fuels: 61.2% of total installed capacity (2022 est.)
Generation sources nuclear: 9% of total installed capacity (2022 est.)
Generation sources solar: 4.5% of total installed capacity (2022 est.)
Generation sources wind: 7.3% of total installed capacity (2022 est.)
Generation sources hydroelectricity: 15% of total installed capacity (2022 est.)
Generation sources geothermal: 0.3% of total installed capacity (2022 est.)
Generation sources biomass and waste: 2.6% of total installed capacity (2022 est.)

Coal
Production: 9.279 billion metric tons (2022 est.)
Consumption: 9.456 billion metric tons (2022 est.)
Exports: 1.445 billion metric tons (2022 est.)
Imports: 1.416 billion metric tons (2022 est.)
Proven reserves: 1.141 trillion metric tons (2022 est.)

Petroleum
Total petroleum production: 99.478 million bbl/day (2023 est.)
Refined petroleum consumption: 99.845 million bbl/day (2022 est.)
Crude oil estimated reserves: 1.697 trillion barrels (2021 est.)

Natural gas
Production: 4.108 trillion m³ (2022 est.)
Consumption: 4.052 trillion m³ (2022 est.)
Exports: 1.288 trillion m³ (2022 est.)
Imports: 1.274 trillion m³ (2022 est.)
Proven reserves: 206.683 trillion m³ (2021 est.)

Carbon dioxide emissions: 38.502 billion metric tonnes of CO2 (2022 est.)
From coal and metallurgical coke: 18.399 billion metric tonnes of CO2 (2022 est.)
From petroleum and other liquids: 12.242 billion metric tonnes of CO2 (2022 est.)
From consumed natural gas: 7.862 billion metric tonnes of CO2 (2022 est.)

Energy consumption per capita: 75.306 million Btu/person (2022 est.)

Telephones
Fixed lines total subscriptions: 840.736 million (2022 est.)
Fixed lines subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 11 (2022 est.)
Mobile cellular total subscriptions: 8.361 billion (2022 est.)
Mobile cellular subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 108 (2022 est.)

Military expenditures: 2.3% of GDP (2023 est.); 2.2% of GDP (2022 est.); 2.3% of GDP (2021 est.); 2.4% of GDP (2020 est.); 2.2% of GDP (2019 est.)

Airports: 45,527 (2024)

Heliports: 20,316 (2024)

Waterways: 2,293,412 km (2017); top ten longest rivers: Nile (Africa) 6,693 km; Amazon (South America) 6,436 km; Mississippi-Missouri (North America) 6,238 km; Yenisey-Angara (Asia) 5,981 km; Ob-Irtysh (Asia) 5,569 km; Yangtze (Asia) 5,525 km; Yellow (Asia) 4,671 km; Amur (Asia) 4,352 km; Lena (Asia) 4,345 km; Congo (Africa) 4,344 km
Note 1: the areas of the lakes are subject to seasonal variation; only the Caspian Sea is saline, the rest are fresh water
Note 2: Lakes Huron and Michigan are technically a single lake because the flow of water between the Straits of Mackinac that connects the two lakes keeps their water levels at near-equilibrium; combined, Lake Huron-Michigan is the largest freshwater lake by surface area in the world
Note 3: the deepest lake in the world (1,620 m), and also the largest freshwater lake by volume (23,600 cu km), is Lake Baikal in Russia

Refugees and internally displaced persons: the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that as of mid-year 2023 there were 110 million people forcibly displaced worldwide; this includes 62.5 million IDPs, 36.4 million refugees, 6.1 million asylum seekers, 5.3 million others in need of international protection; the UNHCR estimates there are currently more than 4.4 million stateless persons as of year-end 2022 (the true number is estimated to be significantly higher)

Illicit drugs: