Compare Western Sahara (2008) - Arctic Ocean (2001)

Compare Western Sahara (2008) z Arctic Ocean (2001)

	Western Sahara (2008)	Arctic Ocean (2001)

Administrative divisions	none (under de facto control of Morocco)	-
Age structure	0-14 years: 45.4% (male 88,176/female 85,421) 15-64 years: 52.3% (male 98,345/female 101,895) 65 years and over: 2.3% (male 3,705/female 5,075) (2007 est.)	-
Agriculture - products	fruits and vegetables (grown in the few oases); camels, sheep, goats (kept by nomads); fish	-
Airports	9 (2007)	-
Airports - with paved runways	total: 3 2,438 to 3,047 m: 3 (2007)	-
Airports - with unpaved runways	total: 6 1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 914 to 1,523 m: 3 under 914 m: 2 (2007)	-
Area	total: 266,000 sq km land: 266,000 sq km water: 0 sq km	total: 14.056 million sq km note: includes Baffin Bay, Barents Sea, Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea, East Siberian Sea, Greenland Sea, Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, Northwest Passage, and other tributary water bodies
Area - comparative	about the size of Colorado	slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US
Background	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. In April 2007, Morocco presented an autonomy plan for the territory to the UN, which the U.S. considers serious and credible. The Polisario also presented a plan to the UN in 2007. Since August 2007, representatives from the Government of Morocco and the Polisario Front have met three times to negotiate the status of Western Sahara, with a fourth round of negotiations planned for March 2008.	The Arctic Ocean is the smallest of the world's five oceans (after the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and the recently delimited Southern Ocean). The Northwest Passage (US and Canada) and Northern Sea Route (Norway and Russia) are two important seasonal waterways. A sparse network of air, ocean, river, and land routes circumscribes the Arctic Ocean.
Birth rate	NA 39.95 births/1,000 population (2007 est.)	-
Budget	revenues: $NA expenditures: $NA	-
Capital	none time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)	-
Climate	hot, dry desert; rain is rare; cold offshore air currents produce fog and heavy dew	polar climate characterized by persistent cold and relatively narrow annual temperature ranges; winters characterized by continuous darkness, cold and stable weather conditions, and clear skies; summers characterized by continuous daylight, damp and foggy weather, and weak cyclones with rain or snow
Coastline	1,110 km	45,389 km
Country name	conventional long form: none conventional short form: Western Sahara former: Spanish Sahara	-
Death rate	NA	-
Debt - external	$NA	-
Diplomatic representation from the US	none	-
Diplomatic representation in the US	none	-
Disputes - international	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; several states have extended diplomatic relations to the "Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic" represented by the Polisario Front in exile in Algeria, while others recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara; most of the approximately 102,000 Sahrawi refugees are sheltered in camps in Tindouf, Algeria	some maritime disputes (see littoral states)
Economic aid - recipient	$NA	-
Economy - overview	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. Incomes in Western Sahara are substantially below the Moroccan level. The Moroccan Government controls all trade and other economic activities in Western Sahara. Morocco and the EU signed a four-year agreement in July 2006 allowing European vessels to fish off the coast of Morocco, including the disputed waters off the coast of Western Sahara. Moroccan energy interests in 2001 signed contracts to explore for oil off the coast of Western Sahara, which has angered the Polisario. However, in 2006 the Polisario awarded similar exploration licenses in the disputed territory, which would come into force if Morocco and the Polisario resolve their dispute over Western Sahara.	Economic activity is limited to the exploitation of natural resources, including petroleum, natural gas, fish, and seals.
Electricity - consumption	79.05 million kWh (2005)	-
Electricity - exports	0 kWh (2005)	-
Electricity - imports	0 kWh (2005)	-
Electricity - production	85 million kWh (2005)	-
Elevation extremes	lowest point: Sebjet Tah -55 m highest point: unnamed location 463 m	lowest point: Fram Basin -4,665 m highest point: sea level 0 m
Environment - current issues	sparse water and lack of arable land	endangered marine species include walruses and whales; fragile ecosystem slow to change and slow to recover from disruptions or damage; thinning polar icepack
Environment - international agreements	party to: none of the selected agreements signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements	-
Ethnic groups	Arab, Berber	-
Exchange rates	Moroccan dirhams per US dollar - 8.2827 (2007), 8.7722 (2006), 8.865 (2005), 8.868 (2004), 9.5744 (2003)	-
Executive branch	none	-
Exports	0 bbl/day (2004)	-
Exports - commodities	phosphates 62%	-
Exports - partners	Morocco claims and administers Western Sahara, so trade partners are included in overall Moroccan accounts (2006)	-
Fiscal year	calendar year	-
GDP - composition by sector	agriculture: NA% industry: NA% services: 40%	-
GDP - real growth rate	NA%	-
Geographic coordinates	24 30 N, 13 00 W	90 00 N, 0 00 E
Geography - note	the waters off the coast are particularly rich fishing areas	major chokepoint is the southern Chukchi Sea (northern access to the Pacific Ocean via the Bering Strait); strategic location between North America and Russia; shortest marine link between the extremes of eastern and western Russia; floating research stations operated by the US and Russia; maximum snow cover in March or April about 20 to 50 centimeters over the frozen ocean; snow cover lasts about 10 months
Household income or consumption by percentage share	lowest 10%: NA% highest 10%: NA%	-
Imports	1,698 bbl/day (2004)	-
Imports - commodities	fuel for fishing fleet, foodstuffs	-
Imports - partners	Morocco claims and administers Western Sahara, so trade partners are included in overall Moroccan accounts (2006)	-
Industrial production growth rate	NA%	-
Industries	phosphate mining, handicrafts	-
Infant mortality rate	total: NA male: NA female: NA	-
Inflation rate (consumer prices)	NA%	-
International organization participation	none	-
Irrigated land	NA	-
Labor force	12,000	-
Labor force - by occupation	agriculture: 50% industry and services: 50%	-
Land boundaries	total: 2,046 km border countries: Algeria 42 km, Mauritania 1,561 km, Morocco 443 km	-
Land use	arable land: 0.02% permanent crops: 0% other: 99.98% (2005)	-
Languages	Hassaniya Arabic, Moroccan Arabic	-
Life expectancy at birth	total population: NA male: NA female: NA	-
Literacy	NA	-
Location	Northern Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Mauritania and Morocco	body of water between Europe, Asia, and North America, mostly north of the Arctic Circle
Map references	Africa	Arctic Region
Maritime claims	contingent upon resolution of sovereignty issue	-
Nationality	noun: Sahrawi(s), Sahraoui(s) adjective: Sahrawi, Sahrawian, Sahraouian	-
Natural hazards	hot, dry, dust/sand-laden sirocco wind can occur during winter and spring; widespread harmattan haze exists 60% of time, often severely restricting visibility	ice islands occasionally break away from northern Ellesmere Island; icebergs calved from glaciers in western Greenland and extreme northeastern Canada; permafrost in islands; virtually ice locked from October to June; ships subject to superstructure icing from October to May
Natural resources	phosphates, iron ore	sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals and whales)
Political pressure groups and leaders	none	-
Population	382,617 note: estimate is based on projections by age, sex, fertility, mortality, and migration; fertility and mortality are based on data from neighboring countries (July 2007 est.)	-
Population below poverty line	NA%	-
Population growth rate	NA	-
Ports and harbors	-	Churchill (Canada), Murmansk (Russia), Prudhoe Bay (US)
Radio broadcast stations	AM 2, FM 0, shortwave 0 (1998)	-
Religions	Muslim	-
Sex ratio	NA	-
Suffrage	none; a UN-sponsored voter identification campaign not yet completed	-
Telephone system	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	about 2,000 (1999 est.)	-
Telephones - mobile cellular	0 (1999)	-
Television broadcast stations	NA	-
Terrain	mostly low, flat desert with large areas of rocky or sandy surfaces rising to small mountains in south and northeast	central surface covered by a perennial drifting polar icepack that averages about 3 meters in thickness, although pressure ridges may be three times that size; clockwise drift pattern in the Beaufort Gyral Stream, but nearly straight-line movement from the New Siberian Islands (Russia) to Denmark Strait (between Greenland and Iceland); the icepack is surrounded by open seas during the summer, but more than doubles in size during the winter and extends to the encircling landmasses; the ocean floor is about 50% continental shelf (highest percentage of any ocean) with the remainder a central basin interrupted by three submarine ridges (Alpha Cordillera, Nansen Cordillera, and Lomonosov Ridge)
Total fertility rate	NA	-
Unemployment rate	NA%	-

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