natural gas, limestone,
marble, and asbestos

Land use:
arable land: 24%
permanent crops: 1%
meadows and pastures: 5%
forest and woodland: 55%
other: 15%

Irrigated land: NA sq km

Environment:
current issues: water pollution from industrial emissions, raw sewage;
air pollution; contamination of drinking water supplies; trade in
endangered species
natural hazards: earthquakes and typhoons
international agreements: signed, but not ratified - Marine Life
Conservation

@Taiwan:People

Population: 21,500,583 (July 1995 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 24% (female 2,543,134; male 2,665,878)
15-64 years: 68% (female 7,191,964; male 7,482,814)
65 years and over: 8% (female 734,535; male 882,258) (July 1995 est.)

Population growth rate: 0.93% (1995 est.)

Birth rate: 15.33 births/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Death rate: 5.71 deaths/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Net migration rate: -0.37 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 5.6 deaths/1,000 live births (1995 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 75.47 years
male: 72.17 years
female: 78.93 years (1995 est.)

Total fertility rate: 1.81 children born/woman (1995 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Chinese (singular and plural)
adjective: Chinese

Ethnic divisions: Taiwanese 84%, mainland Chinese 14%, aborigine 2%

Religions: mixture of Buddhist, Confucian, and Taoist 93%, Christian
4.5%, other 2.5%

Languages: Mandarin Chinese (official), Taiwanese (Min), Hakka
dialects

Literacy: age 15 and over can read and write (1980)
total population: 86%
male: 93%
female: 79%

Labor force: 7.9 million
by occupation: industry and commerce 53%, services 22%, agriculture
15.6%, civil administration 7% (1989)

@Taiwan:Government

Names:
conventional long form: none
conventional short form: Taiwan
local long form: none
local short form: T'ai-wan

Digraph: TW

Type: multiparty democratic regime; opposition political parties
legalized in March, 1989

Capital: Taipei

Administrative divisions: some of the ruling party in Taipei claim to
be the government of all China; in keeping with that claim, the
central administrative divisions include 2 provinces (sheng, singular
and plural) and 2 municipalities* (shih, singular and plural) -
Fu-chien (some 20 offshore islands of Fujian Province including Quemoy
and Matsu), Kao-hsiung*, T'ai-pei*, and Taiwan (the island