Gibraltar (2007) | World (2002) | |
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Administrative divisions | none (overseas territory of the UK) | 268 nations, dependent areas, other, and miscellaneous entries |
Age structure | 0-14 years: 17.2% (male 2,460/female 2,343)
15-64 years: 66.3% (male 9,470/female 9,070) 65 years and over: 16.5% (male 2,090/female 2,534) (2007 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) (2002 est.) |
Agriculture - products | none | - |
Airports | 1 (2007) | - |
Airports - with paved runways | total: 1
1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2007) |
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Area | total: 6.5 sq km
land: 6.5 sq km water: 0 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 | a little less than one half the size of Rhode Island | land area about 16 times the size of the US |
Background | Strategically important, Gibraltar was reluctantly ceded to Great Britain by Spain in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht; the British garrison was formally declared a colony in 1830. In a referendum held in 1967, Gibraltarians voted overwhelmingly to remain a British dependency. Although the current 1969 Constitution for Gibraltar states that the British Government will never allow the people of Gibraltar to pass under the sovereignty of another state against their freely and democratically expressed wishes, a series of talks were held by the UK and Spain between 1997 and 2002 on establishing temporary joint sovereignty over Gibraltar. In response to these talks, the Gibraltarian Government set up a referendum in late 2002 in which a majority of the citizens voted overwhelmingly against any sharing of sovereignty with Spain. Since the referendum, tripartite talks have been held with Spain, the UK, and Gibraltar, and in September 2006 a three-way agreement was signed. Spain agreed to allow airlines other than British to serve Gibraltar, to speed up customs procedures, and to add more telephone lines into Gibraltar. Britain agreed to pay pensions to Spaniards who had been employed in Gibraltar before the border closed in 1969. Spain will be allowed to open a cultural institute from which the Spanish flag will fly. | 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 | 10.69 births/1,000 population (2007 est.) | 21.16 births/1,000 population (2002 est.) |
Budget | revenues: $307 million
expenditures: $284 million (FY00/01 est.) |
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Capital | name: Gibraltar
geographic coordinates: 36 08 N, 5 21 W time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time) daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October |
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Climate | Mediterranean with mild winters and warm summers | two large areas of polar climates separated by two rather narrow temperate zones form a wide equatorial band of tropical to subtropical climates |
Coastline | 12 km | 356,000 km |
Constitution | 5 June 2006; came into force 2 January 2007 | - |
Country name | conventional long form: none
conventional short form: Gibraltar |
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Death rate | 9.4 deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.) | 8.93 deaths/1,000 population (2002 est.) |
Debt - external | $NA | $2 trillion for less developed countries (2001 est.) |
Dependency status | overseas territory of the UK | - |
Diplomatic representation from the US | none (overseas territory of the UK) | - |
Diplomatic representation in the US | none (overseas territory of the UK) | - |
Disputes - international | in 2002, Gibraltar residents voted overwhelmingly by referendum to reject any "shared sovereignty" arrangement; the government of Gibraltar insists on equal participation in talks between the UK and Spain; Spain disapproves of UK plans to grant Gibraltar even greater autonomy | - |
Economic aid - recipient | $NA | official development assistance (ODA) $50 billion (2001 est.) |
Economy - overview | Self-sufficient Gibraltar benefits from an extensive shipping trade, offshore banking, and its position as an international conference center. The British military presence has been sharply reduced and now contributes about 7% to the local economy, compared with 60% in 1984. The financial sector, tourism (almost 5 million visitors in 1998), shipping services fees, and duties on consumer goods also generate revenue. The financial sector, the shipping sector, and tourism each contribute 25%-30% of GDP. Telecommunications accounts for another 10%. In recent years, Gibraltar has seen major structural change from a public to a private sector economy, but changes in government spending still have a major impact on the level of employment. | Growth in global output (gross world product, GWP) fell from 4.8% in 2000 to 2.2% in 2001. The causes: slowdowns in the US economy (21% of GWP) and in the 15 EU economies (20% of GWP); continued stagnation in the Japanese economy (7.3% 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 7.3% but estimated by many observers as perhaps two percentage points lower. Russia (2.6% of GWP), with 5.2% 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 were strong performers, in the 5% range of growth. The developing nations also varied in their growth results, with many countries facing population increases that eat up 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. 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. (For specific economic developments in each country of the world in 2001, see the individual country entries.) |
Electricity - consumption | 141 million kWh (2005) | - |
Electricity - exports | 0 kWh (2005) | - |
Electricity - imports | 0 kWh (2005) | - |
Electricity - production | 141 million kWh (2005) | - |
Electricity - production by source | - | fossil fuel: NA%
hydro: NA% nuclear: NA% other: NA% |
Elevation extremes | lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
highest point: Rock of Gibraltar 426 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 | limited natural freshwater resources: large concrete or natural rock water catchments collect rainwater (no longer used for drinking water) and adequate desalination plant | 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 |
Ethnic groups | Spanish, Italian, English, Maltese, Portuguese, German, North Africans | - |
Exchange rates | Gibraltar pounds per US dollar - 0.5434 (2006), 0.5504 (2005), 0.5462 (2004), 0.6125 (2003), 0.6672 (2002)
note: the Gibraltar pound is at par with the British pound |
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Executive branch | chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952); represented by Governor Sir Robert FULTON (since 27 October 2006)
head of government: Chief Minister Peter CARUANA (since 17 May 1996) cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed from among the 17 elected members of the Parliament by the governor in consultation with the chief minister elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor appointed by the monarch; following legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of the majority coalition is usually appointed chief minister by the governor |
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Exports | NA bbl/day | $6.3 trillion f.o.b. (2001 est.) |
Exports - commodities | (principally reexports) petroleum 51%, manufactured goods 41%, other 8% | the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods and services |
Exports - partners | UK 30.8%, Spain 22.7%, Germany 13.7%, Turkmenistan 10.4%, Switzerland 8.3%, Italy 6.7% (2006) | in value, about 75% of exports from the developed countries |
Fiscal year | 1 July - 30 June | - |
Flag description | two horizontal bands of white (top, double width) and red with a three-towered red castle in the center of the white band; hanging from the castle gate is a gold key centered in the red band | - |
GDP | - | GWP (gross world product) - purchasing power parity - $47 trillion (2001 est.) |
GDP - composition by sector | agriculture: NA%
industry: NA% services: NA% |
agriculture: 4%
industry: 32% services: 64% (2001 est.) |
GDP - per capita | - | purchasing power parity - $7,600 (2001 est.) |
GDP - real growth rate | NA% | 2.2% (2001 est.) |
Geographic coordinates | 36 08 N, 5 21 W | - |
Geography - note | strategic location on Strait of Gibraltar that links the North Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea | 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: 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% |
Imports | NA bbl/day | $6.3 trillion f.o.b. (2001 est.) |
Imports - commodities | fuels, manufactured goods, and foodstuffs | the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods and services |
Imports - partners | Spain 23.4%, Russia 12.3%, Italy 12%, UK 9%, France 8.9%, Netherlands 6.8%, US 4.7% (2006) | in value, about 75% of imports into the developed countries |
Independence | none (overseas territory of the UK) | - |
Industrial production growth rate | NA% | 6% (2000 est.) |
Industries | tourism, banking and finance, ship repairing, tobacco | 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 | total: 4.98 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 5.54 deaths/1,000 live births female: 4.39 deaths/1,000 live births (2007 est.) |
51.55 deaths/1,000 live births (2002 est.) |
Inflation rate (consumer prices) | 1.5% (1998) | developed countries 1% to 4% typically; developing countries 5% to 60% typically (2001 est.); national inflation rates vary widely in individual cases, from declining prices in Japan to hyperinflation in several Third World countries |
International organization participation | Interpol (subbureau), UPU | - |
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) | - | 10,350 (2000 est.) |
Irrigated land | NA | 2,714,320 sq km (1998 est.) |
Judicial branch | Supreme Court; Court of Appeal | - |
Labor force | 12,690 (including non-Gibraltar laborers) (2001) | NA |
Labor force - by occupation | agriculture: negligible
industry: 40% services: 60% (2001) |
agriculture NA%, industry NA%, services NA% |
Land boundaries | total: 1.2 km
border countries: Spain 1.2 km |
the land boundaries in the world total 250,472 km (not counting shared boundaries twice) |
Land use | arable land: 0%
permanent crops: 0% other: 100% (2005) |
arable land: 10.58%
permanent crops: 1% other: 88.42% (1998 est.) |
Languages | English (used in schools and for official purposes), Spanish, Italian, Portuguese | 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 | the laws of the UK, where applicable, apply | 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 Parliament (18 seats: 17 members elected by popular vote, 1 for the Speaker appointed by Parliament; to serve four-year terms)
elections: last held 11 October 2007 (next to be held not later than October 2011) election results: percent of vote by party - GSD 49.3%, GSLP 31.8%, Gibraltar Liberal Party 13.6%; seats by party - GSD 10, GSLP 4, Gibraltar Liberal Party 3 |
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Life expectancy at birth | total population: 79.93 years
male: 77.05 years female: 82.96 years (2007 est.) |
total population: 63.94 years
male: 62.28 years female: 65.67 years (2002 est.) |
Literacy | definition: NA
total population: above 80% male: NA female: NA |
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 77% male: 83% female: 71% (1995 est.) |
Location | Southwestern Europe, bordering the Strait of Gibraltar, which links the Mediterranean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southern coast of Spain | - |
Map references | Europe | Physical Map of the World, Political Map of the World, Standard Time Zones of the World |
Maritime claims | territorial sea: 3 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: 216 ships (1000 GRT or over) 1,422,155 GRT/1,866,572 DWT
by type: barge carrier 2, bulk carrier 5, cargo 117, chemical tanker 39, container 31, passenger 1, petroleum tanker 13, roll on/roll off 7, specialized tanker 1 foreign-owned: 201 (Belgium 3, Cyprus 5, Denmark 9, Finland 3, France 1, Germany 117, Greece 8, Iceland 1, Italy 1, Netherlands 11, Norway 27, Sweden 10, UAE 2, UK 3) registered in other countries: 7 (Liberia 7) (2007) |
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Military - note | defense is the responsibility of the UK; the Royal Gibraltar Regiment replaced the last British regular infantry forces in 1992 | - |
Military branches | Royal Gibraltar Regiment | - |
Military expenditures - dollar figure | - | 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 | - | roughly 2% of gross world product (1999 est.) |
National holiday | National Day, 10 September (1967); note - day of the national referendum to decide whether to remain with the UK or go with Spain | - |
Nationality | noun: Gibraltarian(s)
adjective: Gibraltar |
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Natural hazards | NA | large areas subject to severe weather (tropical cyclones), natural disasters (earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions) |
Natural resources | none | 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 (2007 est.) | - |
Political parties and leaders | Gibraltar Liberal Party [Joseph GARCIA]; Gibraltar Social Democrats or GSD [Peter CARUANA]; Gibraltar Socialist Labor Party or GSLP [Joseph John BOSSANO] | - |
Political pressure groups and leaders | Chamber of Commerce; Gibraltar Representatives Organization; Women's Association | - |
Population | 27,967 (July 2007 est.) | 6,233,821,945 (July 2002 est.) |
Population below poverty line | NA% | - |
Population growth rate | 0.129% (2007 est.) | 1.23% (2002 est.) |
Ports and harbors | - | Chiba, Houston, Kawasaki, Kobe, Marseille, Mina' al Ahmadi (Kuwait), New Orleans, New York, Rotterdam, Yokohama |
Radio broadcast stations | AM 1, FM 5, shortwave 0 (1998) | AM NA, FM NA, shortwave NA |
Radios | - | NA |
Railways | - | total: 1,201,337 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 | Roman Catholic 78.1%, Church of England 7%, other Christian 3.2%, Muslim 4%, Jewish 2.1%, Hindu 1.8%, other or unspecified 0.9%, none 2.9% (2001 census) | Christians 32.88% (of which Roman Catholics 17.39%, Protestants 5.62%, Orthodox 3.54%, Anglicans 1.31%), Muslims 19.54%, Hindus 13.34%, Buddhists 5.92%, Sikhs 0.38%, Jews 0.24%, other religions 12.6%, non-religious 12.63%, atheists 2.47% (2000 est.) |
Sex ratio | at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.044 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.825 male(s)/female total population: 1.005 male(s)/female (2007 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 (2002 est.) |
Suffrage | 18 years of age; universal; and British citizens who have been residents six months or more | - |
Telephone system | general assessment: adequate, automatic domestic system and adequate international facilities
domestic: automatic exchange facilities international: country code - 350; radiotelephone; microwave radio relay; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) |
general assessment: NA
domestic: NA international: NA |
Telephones - main lines in use | 24,512 (2002) | NA |
Telephones - mobile cellular | 9,797 (2002) | NA |
Television broadcast stations | 1 (plus 3 repeaters) (1997) | NA |
Terrain | a narrow coastal lowland borders the Rock of Gibraltar | the greatest ocean depth is the Mariana Trench at 10,924 m in the Pacific Ocean |
Total fertility rate | 1.65 children born/woman (2007 est.) | 2.7 children born/woman (2002 est.) |
Unemployment rate | 2% (2001 est.) | 30% combined unemployment and underemployment in many non-industrialized countries; developed countries typically 4%-12% unemployment (2001 est.) |