British Indian Ocean Territory (2002) | West Bank (2001) | |
Age structure | - | 0-14 years:
44.61% (male 478,232; female 454,439) 15-64 years: 51.8% (male 552,661; female 530,230) 65 years and over: 3.59% (male 32,629; female 42,522) (2001 est.) |
Agriculture - products | - | olives, citrus, vegetables; beef, dairy products |
Airports | 1 (2001) | 3 (2000 est.) |
Airports - with paved runways | total: 1
over 3,047 m: 1 (2002) |
total:
3 2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 under 914 m: 1 (2000 est.) |
Area | total: 60 sq km
land: 60 sq km water: 0 sq km note: includes the entire Chagos Archipelago |
total:
5,860 sq km land: 5,640 sq km water: 220 sq km note: includes West Bank, Latrun Salient, and the northwest quarter of the Dead Sea, but excludes Mt. Scopus; East Jerusalem and Jerusalem No Man's Land are also included only as a means of depicting the entire area occupied by Israel in 1967 |
Area - comparative | about 0.3 times the size of Washington, DC | slightly smaller than Delaware |
Background | Established as a territory of the UK in 1965, a number of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) islands were transferred to the Seychelles when it attained independence in 1976. Subsequently, BIOT has consisted only of the six main island groups comprising the Chagos Archipelago. The largest and most southerly of the islands, Diego Garcia, contains a joint UK-US naval support facility. All of the remaining islands are uninhabited. Former agricultural workers, earlier residents in the islands, were relocated primarily to Mauritius but also to the Seychelles, between 1967 and 1973. In 2000, a British High Court ruling invalidated the local immigration order which had excluded them from the archipelago, but upheld the special military status of Diego Garcia. | The Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements (the DOP), signed in Washington on 13 September 1993, provided for a transitional period not exceeding five years of Palestinian interim self-government in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Under the DOP, Israel agreed to transfer certain powers and responsibilities to the Palestinian Authority, which includes the Palestinian Legislative Council elected in January 1996, as part of interim self-governing arrangements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. A transfer of powers and responsibilities for the Gaza Strip and Jericho took place pursuant to the Israel-PLO 4 May 1994 Cairo Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area and in additional areas of the West Bank pursuant to the Israel-PLO 28 September 1995 Interim Agreement, the Israel-PLO 15 January 1997 Protocol Concerning Redeployment in Hebron, the Israel-PLO 23 October 1998 Wye River Memorandum, and the 4 September 1999 Sharm el-Sheikh Agreement. The DOP provides that Israel will retain responsibility during the transitional period for external security and for internal security and public order of settlements and Israeli citizens. Permanent status is to be determined through direct negotiations, which resumed in September 1999 after a three-year hiatus. An intifadah broke out in September 2000; the resulting widespread violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel's military response, and instability in the Palestinian Authority are undermining progress toward a permanent settlement. |
Birth rate | - | 35.83 births/1,000 population (2001 est.) |
Budget | - | revenues:
$1.6 billion expenditures: $1.73 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA note: includes Gaza Strip (1999 est.) |
Climate | tropical marine; hot, humid, moderated by trade winds | temperate, temperature and precipitation vary with altitude, warm to hot summers, cool to mild winters |
Coastline | 698 km | 0 km (landlocked) |
Country name | conventional long form: British Indian Ocean Territory
conventional short form: none abbreviation: BIOT |
conventional long form:
none conventional short form: West Bank |
Currency | - | new Israeli shekel (ILS); Jordanian dinar (JOD) |
Death rate | - | 4.37 deaths/1,000 population (2001 est.) |
Debt - external | - | $108 million (includes Gaza Strip) (1997 est.) |
Dependency status | overseas territory of the UK; administered by a commissioner, resident in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London | - |
Diplomatic representation from the US | none (overseas territory of the UK) | - |
Diplomatic representation in the US | none (overseas territory of the UK) | - |
Disputes - international | Mauritius and Seychelles claim the Chagos Archipelago and its former inhabitants, who reside chiefly in Mauritius, but in 2001 were granted UK citizenship and the right to repatriation since eviction in 1965; repatriation is complicated by the US military lease of Diego Garcia, the largest island in the chain | West Bank and Gaza Strip are Israeli-occupied with current status subject to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement - permanent status to be determined through further negotiation |
Economic aid - recipient | - | $121 million disbursed (includes Gaza Strip) (2000) |
Economy - overview | All economic activity is concentrated on the largest island of Diego Garcia, where joint UK-US defense facilities are located. Construction projects and various services needed to support the military installations are done by military and contract employees from the UK, Mauritius, the Philippines, and the US. There are no industrial or agricultural activities on the islands. When the Ilois return, they plan to reestablish sugarcane production and fishing. | Economic output in the West Bank is governed by the Paris Economic Protocol of April 1994 between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Real per capita GDP for the West Bank and Gaza Strip (WBGS) declined by 36.1% between 1992 and 1996 owing to the combined effect of falling aggregate incomes and rapid population growth. The downturn in economic activity was largely the result of Israeli closure policies - the imposition of border closures in response to security incidents in Israel - which disrupted established labor and commodity market relationships between Israel and the WBGS. The most serious social effect of this downturn was rising unemployment; unemployment in the WBGS during the 1980s was generally under 5%; by 1995 it had risen to over 20%. Since 1997 Israel's use of comprehensive closures has decreased and, in 1998, Israel implemented new policies to reduce the impact of closures and other security procedures on the movement of Palestinian goods and labor. These changes fueled an almost three-year long economic recovery in the West Bank and Gaza Strip; real GDP grew by 5% in 1998 and 6% in 1999. Recovery was upended in the last quarter of 2000 with the outbreak of Palestinian violence, which triggered tight Israeli closures of Palestinian self-rule areas and a severe disruption of trade and labor movements. |
Electricity - consumption | NA kWh | NA kWh |
Electricity - imports | - | NA kWh |
Electricity - production | NA kWh; note - electricity supplied by the US military | NA kWh; note - most electricity imported from Israel; East Jerusalem Electric Company buys and distributes electricity to Palestinians in East Jerusalem and its concession in the West Bank; the Israel Electric Company directly supplies electricity to most Jewish residents and military facilities; at the same time, some Palestinian municipalities, such as Nablus and Janin, generate their own electricity from small power plants |
Electricity - production by source | - | fossil fuel:
NA% hydro: NA% nuclear: NA% other: NA% |
Elevation extremes | lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
highest point: unnamed location on Diego Garcia 15 m |
lowest point:
Dead Sea -408 m highest point: Tall Asur 1,022 m |
Environment - current issues | NA | adequacy of fresh water supply; sewage treatment |
Ethnic groups | - | Palestinian Arab and other 83%, Jewish 17% |
Exchange rates | - | new Israeli shekels per US dollar - 4.0810 (December 2000), 4.0773 (2000), 4.1397 (1999), 3.8001 (1998), 3.4494 (1997), 3.1917 (1996); Jordanian dinars per US dollar - fixed rate of 0.7090 (from 1996) |
Executive branch | chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952)
head of government: Commissioner Alan HUCKLE (since 2001); Administrator Louise SAVILL (since NA); note - both reside in the UK cabinet: NA elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; commissioner and administrator appointed by the monarch |
- |
Exports | - | $682 million (includes Gaza Strip) (f.o.b., 1998 est.) |
Exports - commodities | - | olives, fruit, vegetables, limestone |
Exports - partners | - | Israel, Jordan, Gaza Strip |
Fiscal year | - | calendar year (since 1 January 1992) |
Flag description | white with six blue wavy horizontal stripes; the flag of the UK is in the upper hoist-side quadrant; the striped section bears a palm tree and yellow crown centered on the outer half of the flag | - |
GDP | - | purchasing power parity - $3.1 billion (2000 est.) |
GDP - composition by sector | - | agriculture:
9% industry: 28% services: 63% note: includes Gaza Strip (1999 est.) |
GDP - per capita | - | purchasing power parity - $1,500 (2000 est.) |
GDP - real growth rate | - | -7.5% (2000 est.) |
Geographic coordinates | 6 00 S, 71 30 E | 32 00 N, 35 15 E |
Geography - note | archipelago of 2,300 islands; Diego Garcia, largest and southernmost island, occupies strategic location in central Indian Ocean; island is site of joint US-UK military facility | landlocked; highlands are main recharge area for Israel's coastal aquifers; there are 231 Israeli settlements and civilian land use sites in the West Bank and 29 in East Jerusalem (August 1999 est.) |
Highways | total: NA km
paved: short stretch of paved road of NA km between port and airfield on Diego Garcia unpaved: NA km |
total:
4,500 km paved: 2,700 km unpaved: 1,800 km (1997 est.) note: Israelis have developed many highways to service Jewish settlements |
Household income or consumption by percentage share | - | lowest 10%:
NA% highest 10%: NA% |
Imports | - | $2.5 billion (includes Gaza Strip) (c.i.f., 1998 est.) |
Imports - commodities | - | food, consumer goods, construction materials |
Imports - partners | - | Israel, Jordan, Gaza Strip |
Industrial production growth rate | - | NA% |
Industries | - | generally small family businesses that produce cement, textiles, soap, olive-wood carvings, and mother-of-pearl souvenirs; the Israelis have established some small-scale, modern industries in the settlements and industrial centers |
Infant mortality rate | - | 21.78 deaths/1,000 live births (2001 est.) |
Inflation rate (consumer prices) | - | 3% (includes Gaza Strip) (2000 est.) |
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) | 1 (2000) | 8 (1999) |
Irrigated land | 0 sq km (1998 est.) | NA sq km |
Labor force | - | NA |
Labor force - by occupation | - | services 66%, industry 21%, agriculture 13% (1996) |
Land boundaries | 0 km | total:
404 km border countries: Israel 307 km, Jordan 97 km |
Land use | arable land: NEGL
permanent crops: 0% other: 100% (1998 est.) |
arable land:
27% permanent crops: 0% permanent pastures: 32% forests and woodland: 1% other: 40% |
Languages | - | Arabic, Hebrew (spoken by Israeli settlers and many Palestinians), English (widely understood) |
Legal system | the laws of the UK, where applicable, apply | - |
Life expectancy at birth | - | total population:
72.28 years male: 70.58 years female: 74.07 years (2001 est.) |
Literacy | - | definition:
NA total population: NA% male: NA% female: NA% |
Location | Southern Asia, archipelago in the Indian Ocean, about one-half the way from Africa to Indonesia | Middle East, west of Jordan |
Map references | Political Map of the World | Middle East |
Maritime claims | exclusive fishing zone: 200 NM
territorial sea: 3 NM |
none (landlocked) |
Military - note | defense is the responsibility of the UK; the US lease on Diego Garcia expires in 2016 | - |
Military branches | - | NA |
Military expenditures - dollar figure | - | $NA |
Military expenditures - percent of GDP | - | NA% |
Nationality | - | noun:
NA adjective: NA |
Natural hazards | NA | droughts |
Natural resources | coconuts, fish, sugarcane | arable land |
Net migration rate | - | 3.29 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2001 est.) |
Population | no indigenous inhabitants
note: approximately 1,200 former agricultural workers resident in the Chagos Archipelago, often referred to as Chagossians or Ilois, were relocated to Mauritius and the Seychelles around the time of the construction of UK-US military facilities; in 2001, there were approximately 1,500 UK and US military personnel and 2,000 civilian contractors living on the island of Diego Garcia (July 2002 est.) |
2,090,713 (July 2001 est.)
note: in addition, there are some 176,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank and about 173,000 in East Jerusalem (August 1999 est.) |
Population below poverty line | - | NA% |
Population growth rate | - | 3.48% (2001 est.) |
Ports and harbors | Diego Garcia | none |
Radio broadcast stations | AM 1, FM 2, shortwave 0 (1998) | AM 1, FM 0, shortwave 0
note: the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation broadcasts from an AM station in Ramallah on 675 kHz; numerous local, private stations are reported to be in operation (2000) |
Radios | NA | NA; note - most Palestinian households have radios (1999) |
Railways | - | 0 km |
Religions | - | Muslim 75% (predominantly Sunni), Jewish 17%, Christian and other 8% |
Sex ratio | - | at birth:
1.06 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.77 male(s)/female total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2001 est.) |
Telephone system | general assessment: separate facilities for military and public needs are available
domestic: all commercial telephone services are available, including connection to the Internet international: international telephone service is carried by satellite (2000) |
general assessment:
NA domestic: NA international: NA note: Israeli company BEZEK and the Palestinian company PALTEL are responsible for communication services in the West Bank |
Telephones - main lines in use | NA | 95,729 (total for West Bank and Gaza Strip) (1997) |
Telephones - mobile cellular | - | NA |
Television broadcast stations | 1 (1997) | NA |
Terrain | flat and low (most areas do not exceed four meters in elevation) | mostly rugged dissected upland, some vegetation in west, but barren in east |
Total fertility rate | - | 4.9 children born/woman (2001 est.) |
Unemployment rate | - | 40% (includes Gaza Strip) (yearend 2000) |
Waterways | none | none |