Explanatory Notes on Main Statistical Indicators

Surface Area is a country total area including land area and inland water bodies, but excluding offshore territorial waters.

Land Area　is a country's total area, excluding area under inland water bodies, national claims to continental shelf, and exclusive economic zones. In most cases the definition of inland water bodies includes major rivers and lakes.

Population Density　is number of persons in the total population for a given year per square kilometre of total surface area.

Arable Area includes land defined by the FAO as land under temporary crops (double-cropped areas are counted once), temporary meadows for mowing or for pasture, land under market or kitchen gardens, and land temporarily fallow. Land abandoned as a result of shifting cultivation is excluded. Data for “Arable land” are not meant to indicate the amount of land that is potentially cultivable.

Permanent Crop Area is the land cultivated with long-term crops which do not have to be replanted for several years (such as cocoa and coffee); land under trees and shrubs producing flowers, such as roses and jasmine; and nurseries (except those for forest trees, which should be classified under "forest"). Permanent meadows and pastures are excluded from land under permanent crops.

Forest Area is land under natural or planted stands of trees, whether productive or not.

Renewable Internal Freshwater Resources Flows refer to internal renewable resources (internal river flows and groundwater from rainfall) in the country.

Annual Freshwater Withdrawals refer to total water withdrawals, not counting evaporation losses from storage basins. Withdrawals also include water from desalination plants in countries where they are a significant source. Withdrawals can exceed 100 percent of total renewable resources where extraction from nonrenewable aquifers or desalination plants is considerable or where there is significant water reuse. Withdrawals for agriculture and industry are total withdrawals for irrigation and livestock production and for direct industrial use (including withdrawals for cooling thermoelectric plants). Withdrawals for domestic uses include drinking water, municipal use or supply, and use for public services, commercial establishments, and homes.

Deforested Area is the permanent conversion of natural forest area to other uses, including agriculture, ranching, settlements, and infrastructure. Deforested areas do not include areas logged but intended for regeneration or areas degraded by fuel-wood gathering, acid precipitation, or forest fires.

National Protected Areas are totally or partially protected areas of at least 1,000 hectares that are designated as scientific reserves with limited public access, national parks, natural monuments, nature reserves or wildlife sanctuaries, protected landscapes, and areas managed mainly for sustainable use. Marine areas, unclassified areas, and littoral (intertidal) areas are excluded. The data also do not include sites protected under local or provincial law.

Threatened Species are the number of species classified by the IUCN as endangered, vulnerable, rare, indeterminate, out of danger, or insufficiently known.

Higher Plants are native vascular plant species (flowering plants only).

Carbon Dioxide Emissions are those stemming from the burning of fossil fuels and the manufacture of cement. They include carbon dioxide produced during consumption of solid, liquid, and gas fuels and gas flaring.

Particulate Matter Concentrations refer to the concentrations of fine suspended particulates less than 10 microns in diameter (PM10) per cubic meter.

Emissions of organic water pollutants are measured as biochemical oxygen demand, or the amount of oxygen that bacteria in water will consume in breaking down waste, a standard water treatment test for the presence of organic pollutants. Industry shares of emissions of organic water pollutants are emissions from manufacturing activities.