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Compare Syria (2004) - Western Sahara (2006)
Compare Syria (2004) z Western Sahara (2006)
| Syria (2004) | Western Sahara (2006) | |
 |  | |
| Administrative divisions | 14 provinces (muhafazat, singular - muhafazah); Al Hasakah, Al Ladhiqiyah, Al Qunaytirah, Ar Raqqah, As Suwayda', Dar'a, Dayr az Zawr, Dimashq, Halab, Hamah, Hims, Idlib, Rif Dimashq, Tartus | none (under de facto control of Morocco) |
| Age structure | 0-14 years: 38% (male 3,524,406; female 3,319,323)
15-64 years: 58.7% (male 5,421,133; female 5,163,669) 65 years and over: 3.3% (male 281,795; female 306,548) (2004 est.) |
0-14 years: NA
15-64 years: NA 65 years and over: NA (2006 est.) |
| Agriculture - products | wheat, barley, cotton, lentils, chickpeas, olives, sugar beets; beef, mutton, eggs, poultry, milk | fruits and vegetables (grown in the few oases); camels, sheep, goats (kept by nomads); fish |
| Airports | 93 (2003 est.) | 11 (2006) |
| Airports - with paved runways | total: 26
over 3,047 m: 5 2,438 to 3,047 m: 16 914 to 1,523 m: 3 under 914 m: 2 (2004 est.) |
total: 3
2,438 to 3,047 m: 3 (2006) |
| Airports - with unpaved runways | total: 66
1,524 to 2,437 m: 2 914 to 1,523 m: 10 under 914 m: 54 (2004 est.) |
total: 8
1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 914 to 1,523 m: 4 under 914 m: 3 (2006) |
| Area | total: 185,180 sq km
land: 184,050 sq km water: 1,130 sq km note: includes 1,295 sq km of Israeli-occupied territory |
total: 266,000 sq km
land: 266,000 sq km water: 0 sq km |
| Area - comparative | slightly larger than North Dakota | about the size of Colorado |
| Background | Following the breakup of the Ottoman Empire during World War I, Syria was administered by the French until independence in 1946. In the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Syria lost the Golan Heights to Israel. Since 1976, Syrian troops have been stationed in Lebanon, ostensibly in a peacekeeping capacity. Over the past decade, Syria and Israel have held occasional peace talks over the return of the Golan Heights. | Morocco virtually annexed the northern two-thirds of Western Sahara (formerly Spanish Sahara) in 1976, and the rest of the territory in 1979, following Mauritania's withdrawal. A guerrilla war with the Polisario Front contesting Rabat's sovereignty ended in a 1991 UN-brokered cease-fire; a UN-organized referendum on final status has been repeatedly postponed. |
| Birth rate | 28.93 births/1,000 population (2004 est.) | NA births/1,000 population |
| Budget | revenues: $6.106 billion
expenditures: $7.397 billion, including capital expenditures of $3.6 billion (2003 est.) |
revenues: $NA
expenditures: $NA |
| Capital | Damascus | none
time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time) |
| Climate | mostly desert; hot, dry, sunny summers (June to August) and mild, rainy winters (December to February) along coast; cold weather with snow or sleet periodically in Damascus | hot, dry desert; rain is rare; cold offshore air currents produce fog and heavy dew |
| Coastline | 193 km | 1,110 km |
| Constitution | 13 March 1973 | - |
| Country name | conventional long form: Syrian Arab Republic
conventional short form: Syria local long form: Al Jumhuriyah al Arabiyah as Suriyah local short form: Suriyah former: United Arab Republic (with Egypt) |
conventional long form: none
conventional short form: Western Sahara former: Spanish Sahara |
| Currency | Syrian pound (SYP) | - |
| Death rate | 4.96 deaths/1,000 population (2004 est.) | NA deaths/1,000 population |
| Debt - external | $21.55 billion (2003 est.) | $NA |
| Diplomatic representation from the US | chief of mission: Ambassador Margaret SCOBEY
embassy: Abou Roumaneh, Al-Mansur Street, No. 2, Damascus mailing address: P. O. Box 29, Damascus telephone: [963] (11) 333-1342 FAX: [963] (11) 331-9678 |
none |
| Diplomatic representation in the US | chief of mission: Ambassador Imad MUSTAFA
chancery: 2215 Wyoming Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008 telephone: [1] (202) 232-6313 FAX: [1] (202) 234-9548 |
none |
| Disputes - international | Golan Heights is Israeli-occupied; Lebanon claims Shaba'a farms in Golan Heights; Syrian troops have been stationed in Lebanon since October 1976; Syria protests Turkish hydrological projects regulating upper Euphrates waters; settled border dispute with Jordan in 2004 | Morocco claims and administers Western Sahara, whose sovereignty remains unresolved; UN-administered cease-fire has remained in effect since September 1991, administered by the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), but attempts to hold a referendum have failed and parties thus far have rejected all brokered proposals |
| Economic aid - recipient | $199 million (1997 est.) | $NA |
| Economy - overview | Syria's predominantly statist economy lately has been growing more slowly than its 2.4% annual population growth rate. Recent legislation allows private banks to operate in Syria, although a private banking sector will take years and further government cooperation to develop. Factors, including the war between the US-led coalition and Iraq, probably drove real annual GDP growth levels back below 1% in 2003 following growth of 3.5% in 2001 and 4.5% in 2002. A long-run economic constraint is the pressure on water supplies caused by rapid population growth, industrial expansion, and increased water pollution. | Western Sahara depends on pastoral nomadism, fishing, and phosphate mining as the principal sources of income for the population. The territory lacks sufficient rainfall for sustainable agricultural production, and most of the food for the urban population must be imported. All trade and other economic activities are controlled by the Moroccan Government. Moroccan energy interests in 2001 signed contracts to explore for oil off the coast of Western Sahara, which has angered the Polisario. Incomes and standards of living in Western Sahara are substantially below the Moroccan level. |
| Electricity - consumption | 21.63 billion kWh (2001) | 83.7 million kWh (2003) |
| Electricity - exports | 0 kWh (2001) | 0 kWh (2003) |
| Electricity - imports | 0 kWh (2001) | 0 kWh (2003) |
| Electricity - production | 23.26 billion kWh (2001) | 85 million kWh (2003) |
| Elevation extremes | lowest point: unnamed location near Lake Tiberias -200 m
highest point: Mount Hermon 2,814 m |
lowest point: Sebjet Tah -55 m
highest point: unnamed location 463 m |
| Environment - current issues | deforestation; overgrazing; soil erosion; desertification; water pollution from raw sewage and petroleum refining wastes; inadequate potable water | sparse water and lack of arable land |
| Environment - international agreements | party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification |
party to: none of the selected agreements
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements |
| Ethnic groups | Arab 90.3%, Kurds, Armenians, and other 9.7% | Arab, Berber |
| Exchange rates | Syrian pounds per US dollar - (Official rate): 11.225 (2003), 11.225 (2002), 11.225 (2001), 11.225 (2000), 11.225 (1999), (Free market rate): 49.65 (2001), 49.4 (2000), 51.7 (1999) | Moroccan dirhams per US dollar - 8.865 (2005), 8.868 (2004), 9.5744 (2003), 11.0206 (2002), 11.303 (2001) |
| Executive branch | chief of state: President Bashar al-ASAD (since 17 July 2000); Vice Presidents Abd al-Halim ibn Said KHADDAM (since 11 March 1984) and Muhammad Zuhayr MASHARIQA (since 11 March 1984)
head of government: Prime Minister Muhammad Naji al-UTRI (since 10 September 2003) cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president elections: president elected by popular vote for a seven-year term; referendum/election last held 10 July 2000 - after the death of President Hafiz al-ASAD, father of Bashar al-ASAD - (next to be held 2007); vice presidents appointed by the president; prime minister and deputy prime ministers appointed by the president election results: Bashar al-ASAD elected president; percent of vote - Bashar al-ASAD 97.29% note: Hafiz al-ASAD died on 10 June 2000; on 20 June 2000, the Ba'th Party nominated Bashar al-ASAD for president and presented his name to the People's Council on 25 June 2000 |
none |
| Exports | NA (2001) | NA bbl/day |
| Exports - commodities | crude oil, petroleum products, fruits and vegetables, cotton fiber, clothing, meat and live animals, wheat | phosphates 62% |
| Exports - partners | Germany 20.9%, Italy 12.6%, UAE 7.6%, Lebanon 6.2%, Turkey 6%, France 5.4%, Croatia 4.8%, US 4.1% (2003) | Morocco claims and administers Western Sahara, so trade partners are included in overall Moroccan accounts (2004) |
| Fiscal year | calendar year | calendar year |
| Flag description | three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black, colors associated with the Arab Liberation flag; two small green five-pointed stars in a horizontal line centered in the white band; former flag of the United Arab Republic where the two stars represented the constituent states of Syria and Egypt; similar to the flag of Yemen, which has a plain white band, Iraq, which has three green stars (plus an Arabic inscription) in a horizontal line centered in the white band, and that of Egypt, which has a gold Eagle of Saladin centered in the white band; the current design dates to 1980 | - |
| GDP | purchasing power parity - $58.01 billion (2003 est.) | - |
| GDP - composition by sector | agriculture: 28.5%
industry: 29.4% services: 42.1% (2003 est.) |
agriculture: NA%
industry: NA% services: 40% |
| GDP - per capita | purchasing power parity - $3,300 (2003 est.) | - |
| GDP - real growth rate | 0.9% (2003 est.) | NA% |
| Geographic coordinates | 35 00 N, 38 00 E | 24 30 N, 13 00 W |
| Geography - note | there are 42 Israeli settlements and civilian land use sites in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights (February 2002 est.) | the waters off the coast are particularly rich fishing areas |
| Heliports | 7 (2003 est.) | - |
| Highways | total: 43,381 km
paved: 10,021 km (including 877 km of expressways) unpaved: 33,360 km (1999) |
- |
| Household income or consumption by percentage share | lowest 10%: NA
highest 10%: NA |
lowest 10%: NA%
highest 10%: NA% |
| Illicit drugs | a transit point for opiates and hashish bound for regional and Western markets; weak anti-money-laundering controls, bank privatization may leave it vulnerable to money-laundering | - |
| Imports | NA (2001) | NA bbl/day |
| Imports - commodities | machinery and transport equipment, electric power machinery, food and livestock, metal and metal products, chemicals and chemical products, plastics, yarn, paper | fuel for fishing fleet, foodstuffs |
| Imports - partners | Germany 7.2%, Italy 7.1%, China 6.3%, France 5.9%, Turkey 5.4% (2003) | Morocco claims and administers Western Sahara, so trade partners are included in overall Moroccan accounts (2004) |
| Independence | 17 April 1946 (from League of Nations mandate under French administration) | - |
| Industrial production growth rate | NA | NA% |
| Industries | petroleum, textiles, food processing, beverages, tobacco, phosphate rock mining | phosphate mining, handicrafts |
| Infant mortality rate | total: 30.6 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 30.82 deaths/1,000 live births female: 30.35 deaths/1,000 live births (2004 est.) |
total: NA
male: NA female: NA |
| Inflation rate (consumer prices) | 1.5% (2003 est.) | NA% |
| International organization participation | ABEDA, AFESD, AMF, CAEU, FAO, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, ISO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, NAM, OAPEC, OIC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNRWA, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO | none |
| Irrigated land | 12,130 sq km (1998 est.) | NA |
| Judicial branch | Supreme Constitutional Court (justices are appointed for four-year terms by the president); High Judicial Council; Court of Cassation; State Security Courts | - |
| Labor force | 4.97 million (2003 est.) | 12,000 |
| Labor force - by occupation | agriculture, industry, services NA | agriculture: 50%
industry and services: 50% |
| Land boundaries | total: 2,253 km
border countries: Iraq 605 km, Israel 76 km, Jordan 375 km, Lebanon 375 km, Turkey 822 km |
total: 2,046 km
border countries: Algeria 42 km, Mauritania 1,561 km, Morocco 443 km |
| Land use | arable land: 25.22%
permanent crops: 4.43% other: 70.35% (2001) |
arable land: 0.02%
permanent crops: 0% other: 99.98% (2005) |
| Languages | Arabic (official); Kurdish, Armenian, Aramaic, Circassian widely understood; French, English somewhat understood | Hassaniya Arabic, Moroccan Arabic |
| Legal system | based on Islamic law and civil law system; special religious courts; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction | - |
| Legislative branch | unicameral People's Council or Majlis al-shaab (250 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
elections: last held 2-3 March 2003 (next to be held NA 2007) election results: percent of vote by party - NPF 67%, independents 33%; seats by party - NPF 167, independents 83; note - the constitution guarantees that the Ba'th Party (part of the NPF alliance) receives one-half of the seats |
- |
| Life expectancy at birth | total population: 69.71 years
male: 68.47 years female: 71.02 years (2004 est.) |
total population: NA years
male: NA years female: NA years |
| Literacy | definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 76.9% male: 89.7% female: 64% (2003 est.) |
NA |
| Location | Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Lebanon and Turkey | Northern Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Mauritania and Morocco |
| Map references | Middle East | Africa |
| Maritime claims | territorial sea: 12 nm
contiguous zone: 41 nm |
contingent upon resolution of sovereignty issue |
| Merchant marine | total: 122 ships (1,000 GRT or over) 446,981 GRT/636,620 DWT
by type: bulk 12, cargo 101, container 2, livestock carrier 4, petroleum tanker 1, refrigerated cargo 1, roll on/roll off 1 foreign-owned: Egypt 1, Germany 1, Greece 1, Italy 1, Lebanon 10, Romania 1 registered in other countries: 83 (2004 est.) |
- |
| Military branches | Syrian Arab Army, Syrian Arab Navy, Syrian Arab Air Force (including Air Defense Command), Police and Security Force | - |
| Military expenditures - dollar figure | $858 million (FY00 est.); note - based on official budget data that may understate actual spending | $992.2 million |
| Military expenditures - percent of GDP | 5.9% (FY00) | - |
| Military manpower - availability | males age 15-49: 4,876,040 (2004 est.) | - |
| Military manpower - fit for military service | males age 15-49: 2,716,054 (2004 est.) | - |
| Military manpower - reaching military age annually | males: 216,077 (2004 est.) | - |
| National holiday | Independence Day, 17 April (1946) | - |
| Nationality | noun: Syrian(s)
adjective: Syrian |
noun: Sahrawi(s), Sahraoui(s)
adjective: Sahrawi, Sahrawian, Sahraouian |
| Natural hazards | dust storms, sandstorms | hot, dry, dust/sand-laden sirocco wind can occur during winter and spring; widespread harmattan haze exists 60% of time, often severely restricting visibility |
| Natural resources | petroleum, phosphates, chrome and manganese ores, asphalt, iron ore, rock salt, marble, gypsum, hydropower | phosphates, iron ore |
| Net migration rate | 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2004 est.) | - |
| Pipelines | gas 2,300 km; oil 2,183 km (2004) | - |
| Political parties and leaders | National Progressive Front or NPF (includes Arab Socialist Renaissance (Ba'th) Party; the governing party) [President Bashar al-ASAD, secretary general]; Socialist Unionist Democratic Party [Fadlallal Nasr Al-DIN]; Syrian Communist Party (two branches) [Wissal Farha BAKDASH, Yuusuf Rashid FAYSAL]; Unionist Socialist Party [Fayez ISMAIL]; Arab Socialist Unionist Movement [Ahmed al-AHMED]; Syrian Arab Socialist Party or ASP [Safwan QUDSI]); Syrian Social National Party [Jubran URAYJI] | - |
| Political pressure groups and leaders | conservative religious leaders; Kurdish Democratic Alliance [leader NA]; Kurdish Democratic Front [lader NA]; Muslim Brotherhood (operates in exile in London) [Ali Badr Eddine al-BAYANOUNI]; National Democratic Front [Hassan Abd al-AZIM] | none |
| Population | 18,016,874
note: in addition, about 40,000 people live in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights - 20,000 Arabs (18,000 Druze and 2,000 Alawites) and about 20,000 Israeli settlers (July 2004 est.) |
273,008 (July 2006 est.) |
| Population below poverty line | 20% (2003 est.) | NA% |
| Population growth rate | 2.4% (2004 est.) | NA |
| Ports and harbors | Baniyas, Jablah, Latakia, Tartus | - |
| Radio broadcast stations | AM 14, FM 2, shortwave 1 (1998) | AM 2, FM 0, shortwave 0 (1998) |
| Railways | total: 2,711 km
standard gauge: 2,460 km 1.435-m gauge narrow gauge: 251 km 1.050-m gauge (2003) |
- |
| Religions | Sunni Muslim 74%, Alawite, Druze, and other Muslim sects 16%, Christian (various sects) 10%, Jewish (tiny communities in Damascus, Al Qamishli, and Aleppo) | Muslim |
| Sex ratio | at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.05 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.92 male(s)/female total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2004 est.) |
NA |
| Suffrage | 18 years of age; universal | none; a UN-sponsored voter identification campaign not yet completed |
| Telephone system | general assessment: fair system currently undergoing significant improvement and digital upgrades, including fiber-optic technology
domestic: coaxial cable and microwave radio relay network international: country code - 963; satellite earth stations - 1 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1 Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region); 1 submarine cable; coaxial cable and microwave radio relay to Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey; participant in Medarabtel |
general assessment: sparse and limited system
domestic: NA international: country code - 212; tied into Morocco's system by microwave radio relay, tropospheric scatter, and satellite; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) linked to Rabat, Morocco |
| Telephones - main lines in use | 2,099,300 (2002) | about 2,000 (1999 est.) |
| Telephones - mobile cellular | 400,000 (2002) | 0 (1999) |
| Television broadcast stations | 44 (plus 17 repeaters) (1995) | NA |
| Terrain | primarily semiarid and desert plateau; narrow coastal plain; mountains in west | mostly low, flat desert with large areas of rocky or sandy surfaces rising to small mountains in south and northeast |
| Total fertility rate | 3.61 children born/woman (2004 est.) | NA children born/woman |
| Unemployment rate | 20% (2002 est.) | NA% |
| Waterways | 900 km (not economically significant) (2002) | - |
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