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Compare Western Sahara (2008) - Arctic Ocean (2002)
Compare Western Sahara (2008) z Arctic Ocean (2002)
| Western Sahara (2008) | Arctic Ocean (2002) | |
 | | |
| 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.) |
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| 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) |
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| Airports - with unpaved runways | total: 6
1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 914 to 1,523 m: 3 under 914 m: 2 (2007) |
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| 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 |
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| Capital | none
time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time) |
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| 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 |
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| 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); Russia is the first state to submit data to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf to extend its continental shelf by claiming two undersea ridges in the Arctic Ocean |
| 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 |
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| 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% |
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| 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% |
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| 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% |
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| Land boundaries | total: 2,046 km
border countries: Algeria 42 km, Mauritania 1,561 km, Morocco 443 km |
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| Land use | arable land: 0.02%
permanent crops: 0% other: 99.98% (2005) |
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| Languages | Hassaniya Arabic, Moroccan Arabic | - |
| Life expectancy at birth | total population: NA
male: NA female: NA |
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| 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 |
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| 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.) |
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| 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 |
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| 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 | - |
| Transportation - note | - | sparse network of air, ocean, river, and land routes; the Northwest Passage (North America) and Northern Sea Route (Eurasia) are important seasonal waterways |
| Unemployment rate | NA% | - |
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