future trends.

_#_Total fertility rate: The average number of children that would
be born per woman if all women lived to the end of their childbearing
years and bore children according to a given fertility rate at each age.

_#_Years: All year references are for the calendar year (CY) unless
indicated as fiscal year (FY).

_#_Note: Information for the US and US dependencies was compiled from
material in the public domain and does not represent Intelligence
Community estimates.

The Handbook of Economic Statistics, published annually in
September by the Central Intelligence Agency, contains detailed
economic information for the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD) countries, Eastern Europe, the USSR,
and selected other countries. The Handbook can be obtained wherever
The World Factbook is available.

THE WORLD FACTBOOK

_@_Afghanistan
_*_Geography
_#_Total area: 647,500 km2; land area: 647,500 km2

_#_Comparative area: slightly smaller than Texas

_#_Land boundaries: 5,826 km total; China 76 km, Iran 936 km,
Pakistan 2,430 km, USSR 2,384 km

_#_Coastline: none--landlocked

_#_Maritime claims: none--landlocked

_#_Disputes: Pashtun question with Pakistan; Baloch question with Iran
and Pakistan; periodic disputes with Iran over Helmand water rights;
insurgency with Iranian and Pakistani involvement; traditional tribal
rivalries

_#_Climate: arid to semiarid; cold winters and hot summers

_#_Terrain: mostly rugged mountains; plains in north and southwest

_#_Natural resources: natural gas, crude oil, coal, copper, talc,
barites, sulphur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, precious and
semiprecious stones

_#_Land use: arable land 12%; permanent crops NEGL%; meadows and
pastures 46%; forest and woodland 3%; other 39%; includes irrigated
NEGL%

_#_Environment: damaging earthquakes occur in Hindu Kush mountains;
soil degradation, desertification, overgrazing, deforestation, pollution

_#_Note: landlocked

_*_People
_#_Population: US Bureau of the Census--16,450,304 (July 1991),
growth rate 5.2% (1991) and excludes 3,750,796 refugees in Pakistan
and 1,607,281 refugees in Iran; note--another report indicates a
July 1990 population of 16,904,904, including 3,271,580 refugees in
Pakistan and 1,277,700 refugees in Iran

_#_Birth rate: 44 births/1,000 population (1991)

_#_Death rate: 20 deaths/1,000 population (1991)

_#_Net migrati