Brief Introduction

I. Data for major foreign countries/territories have been adjusted by international organizations such as the United Nations, and the scope and coverage is therefore comparable.

II. The latest data for a certain countries/territories are preliminary or estimated statistics.

III. All data of China do not cover Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR and Taiwan Province except data for the surface area.

IV. Data in this chapter are mainly from databases, CD-ROMs, yearbooks and monthly publications of international organizations, the sources of data are given at the top of each table in the Yearbook. Data for China are all taken from China Statistical Yearbook, unless otherwise specified.

V. Some aggregations or rates/ratios may not add up to the sum of the series because of rounding.

VI. The symbol "(blank)" indicates that data are not available.