World

time difference: there are 21 world entities (20 countries and 1 dependency) with multiple time zones: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, France, Greenland (part of the Danish Kingdom), Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Mexico, Micronesia, Mongolia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Portugal, Russia, Spain, United States note 1: in some instances, the time zones pertain to portions of a country that lie overseas note 2: in 1851, the British set their prime meridian (0 longitude) through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England; this meridian became the international standard in 1884 and thus the basis for the standard time zones of the world; today, GMT is officially known as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and is also referred to as "Zulu time"; UTC is the basis for all civil time, with the world divided into time zones expressed as positive or negative differences from UTC note 3: each time zone is based on 15 starting from the prime meridian; in theory, there are 24 time zones based on the solar day, but there are now upward of 40 because of fractional hour offsets that adjust for various political and physical geographic realities; see the Standard Time Zones of the World map included with the World and Regional Maps daylight saving time: some 67 countries -- including most of the world's leading industrialized nations -- use daylight savings time (DST) in at least a portion of the country; China, Japan, India, and Russia are major industrialized countries that do not use DST; Asia and Africa generally do not observe DST, and it is generally not observed near the equator, where sunrise and sunset times do not vary enough to justify it; some countries observe DST only in certain regions; only a minority of the world's population -- about 20% -- uses DST

chief of state: there are 27 countries with royal families in the world: most are in Asia (13) and Europe (10), three are in Africa, and one in Oceania; monarchies by continent are as follows: Asia (Bahrain, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, United Arab Emirates); Europe (Belgium, Denmark, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom); Africa (Eswatini, Lesotho, Morocco); Oceania (Tonga) note 1: Andorra and the Holy See (Vatican) are also monarchies of a sort, but they are not ruled by royal houses; Andorra has two co-princes (the president of France and the bishop of Urgell) and the Holy See is ruled by an elected pope note 2: the UK sovereign is also the monarch for the 14 Commonwealth countries (including Australia, Canada, Jamaica, New Zealand)

230 political entities have legislative bodies; of these, 144 are unicameral (a single house ) and 86 are bicameral (both upper and lower houses); 33 territories, possessions, or other special administrative units have their own governing bodies

2.4% of GDP (2024 est.) 2.3% of GDP (2023 est.) 2.2% of GDP (2022 est.) 2.2% of GDP (2021 est.) 2.3% of GDP (2020 est.)

as of mid-2025, there were approximately 68,000 personnel deployed on UN peacekeeping missions worldwide (2025)

$173.163 trillion (2024 est.) $167.633 trillion (2023 est.) $162.058 trillion (2022 est.) note: data in 2021 dollars

$21,300 (2024 est.) $20,800 (2023 est.) $20,300 (2022 est.) note: data in 2021 dollars

2.9% (2024 est.) 2.9% (2023 est.) 3.4% (2022 est.) note: annual GDP % growth based on constant local currency

3% (2024 est.) 5.9% (2023 est.) 7.9% (2022 est.) note: annual % change based on consumer prices

67.2% of GDP (2016 est.)

$32.379 trillion (2024 est.) $31.271 trillion (2023 est.) $31.782 trillion (2022 est.) note: balance of payments - exports of goods and services in current dollars

$31.244 trillion (2024 est.) $30.334 trillion (2023 est.) $30.871 trillion (2022 est.) note: balance of payments - imports of goods and services in current dollars

4.9% (2024 est.) 5% (2023 est.) 5.3% (2022 est.) note: % of labor force seeking employment

revenues: $21.68 trillion (2017 est.) expenditures: $23.81 trillion (2017 est.)

dominated by the onrush of technology, especially in computers, robotics, telecommunications, and medicines and medical equipment; most of these advances take place in OECD nations; only a small portion of non-OECD countries have succeeded in rapidly adjusting to these technological forces; the accelerated development of new technologies is complicating already grim environmental problems

the whole range of agricultural products top ten agricultural products by global production tonnage: sugarcane, maize, rice, wheat, milk, oil palm fruit, potatoes, soybeans, cassava, vegetables (2023)

total: 8,057,236,243 (2024 est.) male: 4,046,854,454 female: 4,010,381,789

1.03% (2021 est.) note: this rate results in about 154 net additions to the worldwide population every minute or 2.6 people every second

0-14 years: 24.5% (male 1,018,005,046/female 958,406,907) 15-64 years: 65.2% (male 2,658,595,672/female 2,592,930,538) 65 years and over: 10.3% (2024 est.) (male 370,253,736/female 459,044,344)

17 births/1,000 population (2024 est.) note: this rate results in about 260 worldwide births per minute or 4.3 births every second

7.9 deaths/1,000 population (2024 est.) note: this rate results in about 121 worldwide deaths per minute or 2 deaths every second

total population: 70.5 years (2020) male: 68.4 years female: 72.6 years

urban population: 57.5% of total population (2023) rate of urbanization: 1.73% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

most-spoken language: English 18.8%, Mandarin Chinese 13.8%, Hindi 7.5%, Spanish 6.9%, French 3.4%, Arabic 3.4%, Bengali 3.4%, Russian 3.2%, Portuguese 3.2%, Urdu 2.9% (2022 est.) most-spoken first language: Mandarin Chinese 12.3%, Spanish 6%, English 5.1%, Arabic 5.1%, Hindi 3.5%, Bengali 3.3%, Portuguese 3%, Russian 2.1%, Japanese 1.7%, Punjabi, Western 1.3%, Javanese 1.1% (2018 est.) note 1: the six UN languages -- Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, Russian, and Spanish (Castilian) -- are the mother tongue or second language of about 49.6% of the world's population (2022), and are the official languages in more than half the states in the world; some 400 languages have more than a million first-language speakers (2018) note 2: all told, there are estimated to be 7,168 living languages spoken in the world (2023); approximately 80% of these languages are spoken by fewer than 100,000 people; about 150 languages are spoken by fewer than 10 people; communities that are isolated in mountainous regions often develop multiple languages -- Papua New Guinea, for example, boasts about 840 separate languages (2018) note 3: approximately 2,300 languages are spoken in Asia; 2,140, in Africa; 1,310 in the Pacific; 1,060 in the Americas; and 290 in Europe (2020)

Christian 31.1%, Muslim 24.9%, Hindu 15.2%, Buddhist 6.6%, folk religions 5.6%, Jewish 1%, other 1%, unaffiliated 15.6% (2020 est.)

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List: (25 countries) Algeria, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Fiji, Hong Kong, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Maldives, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Vanuatu, Zimbabwe (2025) Tier 3: (20 countries) Afghanistan, Belarus, Burma, Cambodia, Chad, People's Republic of China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Laos, Macau, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Sint Maarten, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela (2025)

47,242 (2025)

total: 1,148,186 km (2013)

total: 103,577 (2023) by type: bulk carrier 13,141, container ship 5,815, general cargo 19,918, oil tanker 11,604, other 53,099

total subscriptions: 9.01 billion (2024 est.) subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 110 (2024 est.)

percent of population: 74% (2025 est.)