urrent issues: very limited natural fresh water resources; inadequate
supplies of potable water; overgrazing; soil erosion; desertification
natural hazards: sandstorms and dust storms in summer
international agreements: party to - Environmental Modification, Law
of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban; signed, but not ratified - Biodiversity,
Climate Change

Note: controls Bab el Mandeb, the strait linking the Red Sea and the
Gulf of Aden, one of world's most active shipping lanes

@Yemen:People

Population: 14,728,474 (July 1995 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 50% (female 3,551,953; male 3,776,358)
15-64 years: 48% (female 3,505,735; male 3,508,229)
65 years and over: 2% (female 216,210; male 169,989) (July 1995 est.)

Population growth rate: 4.02% (1995 est.)

Birth rate: 44.85 births/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Death rate: 8.01 deaths/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Net migration rate: 3.39 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 58.2 deaths/1,000 live births (1995 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 62.51 years
male: 61.57 years
female: 63.5 years (1995 est.)

Total fertility rate: 7.15 children born/woman (1995 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Yemeni(s)
adjective: Yemeni

Ethnic divisions: predominantly Arab; Afro-Arab concentrations in
western coastal locations; South Asians in southern regions; small
European communities in major metropolitan areas

Religions: Muslim including Sha'fi (Sunni) and Zaydi (Shi'a), small
numbers of Jewish, Christian, and Hindu

Languages: Arabic

Literacy: age 15 and over can read and write (1990 est.)
total population: 38%
male: 53%
female: 26%

Labor force: no reliable estimates exist, most people are employed in
agriculture and herding or as expatriate laborers; services,
construction, industry, and commerce account for less than half of the
labor force

@Yemen:Government

Names:
conventional long form: Republic of Yemen
conventional short form: Yemen
local long form: Al Jumhuriyah al Yamaniyah
local short form: Al Yaman

Digraph: YM

Type: republic

Capital: Sanaa

Administrative divisions: 17 governorates (muhafazat, singular -
muhafazah); Abyan, Adan, Al Bayda, Al Hudaydah, Al Jawf, Al Mahrah, Al
Mahwit, Dhamar, Hadramaut, Hajjah, Ibb, Lahij, Marib, Sadah, Sana,
Shabwah, Taizz
note: there may be a new governorate for the capital city of Sanaa

Independence: 22 Ma