Geography: Location: Middle East, northwest
of Saudi Arabia
Area:
total: 89,213 sq km
land: 88,884 sq km
water: 329 sq km
Area—comparative: slightly smaller than Indiana
Land boundaries:
total: 1,619 km
border countries: Iraq 181 km, Israel 238 km, Saudi Arabia 728 km, Syria 375 km, West Bank
97 km
Coastline: 26 km
Maritime claims:
territorial sea: 3 nm
Climate: mostly arid desert; rainy season in west (November to April)
Terrain: mostly desert plateau in east, highland area in west; Great Rift Valley separates
East and
West Banks of the Jordan River
Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Dead Sea -408 m
highest point: Jabal Ram 1,754 m
Natural resources: phosphates, potash, shale oil
Land use:
arable land: 4%
permanent crops: 1%
permanent pastures: 9%
forests and woodland: 1%
other: 85% (1993 est.)
Irrigated land: 630 sq km (1993 est.)
Natural hazards: NA
Environment—current issues: limited natural fresh water resources; deforestation;
overgrazing;
soil erosion; desertification
Environment—international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous
Wastes,
Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
People
Population: 4,434,978 (July 1998 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 43% (male 985,211; female 935,982)
15-64 years: 54% (male 1,224,595; female 1,160,915)
65 years and over: 3% (male 64,406; female 63,869) (July 1998 est.)
Population growth rate: 2.54% (1998 est.)
Birth rate: 35.18 births/1,000 population (1998 est.)
Death rate: 3.91 deaths/1,000 population (1998 est.)
Net migration rate: -5.92 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1998 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 1.01 male(s)/female (1998 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 33.29 deaths/1,000 live births (1998 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 72.84 years
male: 70.96 years
female: 74.84 years (1998 est.)
Total fertility rate: 4.79 children born/woman (1998 est.)
Nationality:
noun: Jordanian(s)
adjective: Jordanian
Ethnic groups: Arab 98%, Circassian 1%, Armenian 1%
Religions: Sunni Muslim 96%, Christian 4% (1997 est.)
Languages: Arabic (official), English widely understood among upper and middle classes
Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 86.6%
male: 93.4%
female: 79.4% (1995 est.)
Government
Country conventional name: Kingdom of Jordan
Government type: constitutional monarchy
National capital: Amman
Economy
Economy—overview: Jordan is a small Arab country with inadequate supplies of water
and
other natural resources such as oil and coal. Jordan benefited from increased Arab aid
during the
oil boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s, when its annual real GNP growth averaged more
than
10%. In the remainder of the 1980s, however, reductions in both Arab aid and worker
remittances
slowed real economic growth to an average of roughly 2% per year. Imports—mainly oil,
capital
goods, consumer durables, and food—outstripped exports, with the difference covered
by aid,
remittances, and borrowing. In mid-1989, the Jordanian Government began debt-rescheduling
negotiations and agreed to implement an IMF-supported program designed to gradually reduce
the
budget deficit and implement badly needed structural reforms. The Persian Gulf crisis that
began in
August 1990, however, aggravated Jordan's already serious economic problems, forcing the
government to shelve the IMF program, stop most debt payments, and suspend rescheduling
negotiations. Aid from Gulf Arab states, worker remittances, and trade contracted; and
refugees
flooded the country, producing serious balance-of-payments problems, stunting GDP growth,
and
straining government resources. The economy rebounded in 1992, largely due to the influx
of
capital repatriated by workers returning from the Gulf, but recovery was uneven in
1994-97. The
government is implementing the reform program adopted in 1992 and continues to secure
rescheduling and write-offs of its heavy foreign debt. Debt, poverty, and unemployment
remain
Jordan's biggest on-going problems.
GDP: purchasing power parity—$20.7 billion (1997 est.)
GDP—real growth rate: 5.3% (1997 est.)
GDP—per capita: purchasing power parity—$4,800 (1997 est.)
GDP—composition by sector:
agriculture: 6%
industry: 30%
services: 64% (1995 est.)
Inflation rate—consumer price index: 3% (1997 est.)
Labor force:
total: 1.15 million plus 300,000 foreign workers (1997 est.)
by occupation: industry 11.4%, commerce, restaurants, and hotels 10.5%, construction
10.0%,
transport and communications 8.7%, agriculture 7.4%, other services 52.0% (1992)
Unemployment rate: 15% official rate; note—actual rate is 20%-25% (1997 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $2.7 billion
expenditures: $2.8 billion, including capital expenditures of $630 million (1997 est.)
Industries: phosphate mining, petroleum refining, cement, potash, light manufacturing
Industrial production growth rate: -3.4% (1996)
Agriculture—products: wheat, barley, citrus, tomatoes, melons, olives; sheep, goats,
poultry
Exports:
total value: $1.53 billion (f.o.b., 1997)
commodities: phosphates, fertilizers, potash, agricultural products, manufactures
partners: Iraq, India, Saudi Arabia, EU, Indonesia, UAE
Imports:
total value: $3.7 billion (c.i.f., 1997)
commodities: crude oil, machinery, transport equipment, food, live animals, manufactured
goods
partners: EU, Iraq, US, Japan, Turkey
Debt—external: $7.3 billion (1997 est.)
Economic aid:
recipient: ODA, $424 million (1996)
Currency: 1 Jordanian dinar (JD) = 1,000 fils
More
Information About Jordan
JORDANIAN PEOPLE GROUPS
The Bedouin Arabs General Information, Bethany Profile
Palestinian Arabs Bethany Profile, Profile
Circassian (Cherkess) Profile , AD2000 Profile
The Kurds Profile
