Introduction

Background: Asia is the largest continent of the world that extends over nearly one-third of the land surface of the earth. It was the home of some of the world’s oldest civilizations.
The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama reached India by sea in 1498, beginning the era of European imperialism in Asia.
With the formation of English, French, Dutch and Portuguese trading companies in 17th century, the European control of Asian lands increased. Soon, European powers extended political control over the first Indian subcontinent, then South-West Asia and South-East Asia. World War I led to a weakening of European stature in Asia.
World War II and the conflicts of its aftermath hit Asia heavily. The United States, Britain, France and the Netherlands were still major forces in Asia. In the 1960s and 70s the British decision to withdraw “east of Suez” and the U.S. defeat in the Vietnam War foreshadowed new power alignments in the area. China’s growing strength and a Soviet drive to expand relations with Asian states polarized perceptions of Asian instability as a contest between pro-Communist and anti-Communist powers.
Other forces, however, were also shaping Asia in the 1970s and 80s. Nations with powerful militaries—Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, India, China, Vietnam, and Indonesia—invaded weakly guarded neighbors and fought low-level wars against one another. The former Euro-American–dominated world economic order received rude shocks from the Middle East–led oil embargo crises of 1973–74 and 1979 and the economic strength of Japan and the “Little Dragons”.
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, an event in part triggered by its failed invasion of Afghanistan, led to the evaporation of the cold war polarization and to the birth of a new group of independent nations in Asia's center. In the 1990s, China emerged as a growing economic giant, but the booming economies of SE Asia suffered setbacks in the late 1990s. The 1990s also saw the gradual emergence of peace between a number of former combatants in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Geography

Location: The continent of Asia lies almost entirely in the Northern hemisphere. It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the Bering Strait and the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the southwest by the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea. On the west, the conventional boundary between Europe and Asia is drawn at the Ural Mountains, continuing south along the Ural River to the Caspian Sea, then west along the Caucasus Mountains to the Black Sea.

Geographic coordinates:
•    Northernmost Point — Fligeli Point, Rudolfi Island, Franz Josef Land, Russia (81°52'N)
•    Southernmost Point — Pulau Dana, Indonesia ¹
•    Westernmost Point — Cape Baba, Turkey (26°4'E) ²
•    Easternmost Point — Big Diomede, Russia ³


Map references: Northern Hemisphere

Area: total: 49,694,700 sq.km including islands; 

Area - comparative: world’s largest continent

Coastline: 62000 km

Climate: ranges through all extremes, from torrid heat to arctic cold and from torrential rains (the product of monsoons) to extreme aridity (as in the Tarim Basin).

Terrain: high mountain ranges, vast plateaus, river basins, lakes and inland seas.

Elevation extremes: lowest point: Dead Sea (408 m below sea level); highest point: Mountain Everest (8850 m);

Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, coal, tin, iron ore, manganese ore, gemstones, sapphires, gold, silver, uranium, copper, lead, zinc, bauxite.

Irrigated land: Asia has two-thirds of the world’s irrigated land- about 550 million hectares (1998 est)

Natural hazards: floods, droughts, cyclones, earthquakes, windstorms, tidal waves and land slides, etc.They are due to climatic and seismic factors.

Environment - current issues: land and soil degradation, deforestation, lessening the land’s capacity to sustain life.

People

Population: 3,960,000,000 (2006 est)

Age structure:  Age   0-14: 32.6 %
                             Age 15-59: 59.6 %
                             Age   60+:    7.8 %

Median age: More than 40 percent of the populations of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, and Pakistan are under 16 years. less than 25 percent of the populations of Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore are under 16.

Population growth rate: average: 1.1 % (2006 est); highest: 2.5 % in Yemen, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Laos, and Jordan.

Birth rate: 24 deaths/1000 thousand population (2005 est)

Death rate: 7.6 deaths/1000 thousand population (2005 est)

Sex ratio: 102.44 males per 100 females (2000 est)

Infant mortality rate: 37.5% (2005 est.)

Life expectancy at birth: 66.5 years (2005 est.)

Total fertility rate: 2.9 children born/woman (2005 est.)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 0.28%

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 3 313 800

HIV/AIDS - deaths: 171 753

Ethnic groups: Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbek, Turkmen, Russian, Kazakh, Indian, Mongol, Sinhalese, Chinese, Japanese, Achang, Buyi, Cham, De'ang, Dulong, Hui, Intha, Jinuo, Menggu, Nu, Pa'o, Pumi, Qiang, Shui, Viet, Zang, Han, Burman, Thai, Shan, Yi, Karen, Rakhine, Bai, Hani, Khmer, Kachin, Mon, Zhuang, Chin, Dai, , Hmong, Wa, Lisu, Lahu, Naxi, Yao, Bulang, Kayah, Zang, Dong ant others

Religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Shinto, Christianity.

Languages: Chinese (more than 1 billion), Japanese (125 million), Korean (69 million), Thai, Malay, Khmer, Burmese, Lao, Vietnamese, Urdu, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, English, French, Dutch, and other languages.

Literacy: illiterate people in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea – less than 15 %; illiterate people in Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Yemen – more than 50 %; the percentage of illiterate women is greater than that of men.

Economy

Economy - overview: Much of Asia is economically underdeveloped. Even though the majority of the continent’s population is employed in agriculture, most agriculture is characterized by low yields and poor labor productivity. Relatively few people are employed in manufacturing. The services sector is dominated by low-income positions, such as street vendors or pedicab operators. Urban centers and their industries are often poorly integrated into the rural economy. Transportation systems, both within countries and between them, are often underdeveloped. Asia-Pacific region plays an increasingly important role in both technical developments and market demand. The Asia Pacific region is dominant and accounts for 30% of the world’s nonwoven total output of 4.4 million tons. Asia-Pacific's share of the global mobile phone market's value increased by 5.9 percentage points over the review period 2001-2005, growing from 36.1% in 2001 to 42% in 2005.

Agriculture: Less than one-third of Asia’s land is in agricultural use. In South, Southeast, and East Asia, agriculture is characterized by small farms in alluvial lowlands, too many people on too little land, production largely for subsistence, and a heavy dependence on cereals and other food staples. Farmers grow some grains in Asia’s dry interior regions, and the raising of cattle, sheep, and horses is important.

Forestry and Fishing: Although lumbering is an important industry in Southeast Asia, the pattern of commercial production is being altered, due in part to increased concern regarding deforestation. Slash-and-burn agriculture is still practiced in parts of Southeast Asia. Marine fisheries and pisciculture (raising fish in ponds) are extremely important in Asia. Japan is the world’s leading fishing country, and China is not far behind. The fishing industry is also important in Russia, Thailand, Indonesia, Korea, and the Philippines.

Mining: it is a major export industry in several countries. The most important mineral export is petroleum. Manganese is mined in India; tin in Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia (which combined produce most of the world’s supply of this metal); and chromium ore in the Philippines. Southwest Asia contains the world’s largest reserves of oil outside Russia, and most of the production is exported. Coal mining is important in China. Other significant mineral products include iron, manganese, and tungsten in China; sulfur, zinc, and molybdenum in Japan; and gold in Uzbekistan and Siberia.

Manufacturing: unevenly spread but growing quickly. Japan has a highly diversified industrial sector, constituting about one-quarter of the labor force. China, Russia, and India also have large manufacturing centers. In China, manufacturing employs some 15 percent of the workforce. Manufacturing is heavily concentrated in and near Kolkata, in the Mumbai area, in the central peninsula, and in several other areas where resources are available.

Energy: Petroleum, hydroelectric potential, waterpower, coal. Although overall energy production has increased greatly since the 1960s, energy consumption per capita remains extremely low in most Asian countries. The more economically developed countries or areas have moderate to high consumption levels. These include Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Russian Asia, and the states of Central Asia.

GDP: 14,164,080,001,103 (2005 est)

GDP - real growth rate: 5.5% (2005 est)

GDP - per capita: 7607$ (2005 est)

Labor force: 1,089,678,825 (2005 est)

Unemployment rate: 11.8% (2005 est)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 5.9% (2005 est)

Investment (gross fixed): 17.96% of GDP (2005 est)

Public debt: 39.6% of GDP (2005 est)

Agriculture - products: cereals, rice, rubber, palm oil, coconut products, tea, pineapples, manila hemp.

Industrial production growth rate: 7.15% (2005 est)

Electricity - production: 6,133,980,000,000 KwH (2005 est)

Electricity - consumption: 5,555,013,700,000 KwH (2005 est)

Oil - production: 38,555,673 bbl/day(2005 est)


Oil - consumption: 26,280,020 bbl/day (2005 est)

Oil - exports: 27,544,843 bbl/day (2005 est)

Oil - imports: 11,273,230 bbl/day (2005 est)

Oil - proved reserves: 856,632,905,000 bbl (2005 est)

Natural gas - production: 1,149,689,500,000 cu m (2005 est)

Natural gas - consumption: 957,020,000,000 cu m (2005 est)

Natural gas - exports: 319,874,000,000 cu m (2005 est)

Natural gas - imports: 178,056,000,000 cu m (2005 est)

Natural gas - proved reserves: 120,418,681,000,000 cu m (2005 est)

Exports: 2,531,473,500,000 USD (2005 est)

Imports: 2,144,432,800,000 USD (2005 est)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold: 2,323,648,200,000 USD (2005 est)

Debt - external: 1,398,995,000,000 USD (2005 est)

Communications

Telephones - main lines in use: 534,986,428

Telephones - mobile cellular: 575,755,578

Internet hosts: 18,449,563

Internet users: 261,782,900

Transportation

Railways: Route between China and Russia, and one connecting Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. The continent’s chief transportation mode is the railroad. The length of the railway is 330,058 km

Highways: Highways are few and rural roads are often unpaved. Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia, and much of the Philippines are the exceptions.The length of the higway network is  8,393,766 km.

Waterways: Amur River, Mekong River;  Most of Asia’s international transportation is by sea or air.

Ports and harbors: Shanghai, Qinhuangdao, Dalian, Qingdao, Singapore, Bangkok, Jakarta (at Tanjung Priok), Kuala Lumpur (at Kelang), Manila, Mumbai and Kolkata, Iran’s Kharg Island;

Merchant marine: Navigable rivers are often the main highways of commerce; In China, the Yangtze River has long been the major east-west transportation artery. It is connected to Beijing and the Huabei Pingyuan (North China Plain) by the Grand Canal, which intersects the Yangtze near Shanghai.

Airports: Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei, Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Singapore.

Heliports: about 300