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Finland-Swedish-speaking Finns

Finland Index

Figure 11. Areas Inhabited by Swedish-speaking Finns up to 1910

Source: Based on information from Erik Allardt and Karl Johan Miemois, Roots Both in the Center and the Periphery: The Swedish Speaking Population in Finland, Helsinki, 1979, 7.

Figure 12. Language Areas of Finland, 1976

Source: Based on information from Erik Allardt and Karl Johan Miemois, The Swedish-Speaking Minority in Finland, Helsinki, 1981, 56.

The largest minority group in Finland was the Swedish- speaking Finns, who numbered about 250,000 in the late 1980s. The first evidence of their presence in the country, dating from the eighth century, comes from the Aland Islands. After the thirteenth century, colonization from Sweden began in earnest, and within two centuries there was a band of territory occupied by Swedish speakers that ran along the western and the southern coasts and had an average width of about thirty kilometers (see fig. 11). Cycles of Finnish and Swedish assimilation have changed the linguistic makeup of this strip of land. In Ostrobothnia, for example, the area of Swedish settlement extended inland as much as sixty kilometers and still existed in the late 1980s, while other areas had eventually reverted to being once again overwhelmingly inhabited by Finnish speakers. By the end of the nineteenth century, the areas of Swedish settlement had shrunk to basically what they were in the second half of the 1980s: Ostrobothnia, the Aland Islands, and a strip along the southern coast that included the capital (see fig. 12). The settlers from Sweden gradually lost contact with their relatives in the old country and came to regard Finland as their country. They were distinguished from other Finns only by their language, Swedish, which they retained even after hundreds of years of separation from Sweden.

Although most Swedish-speaking Finns worked as farmers and fishermen, for centuries they also made up the country's governing elite. Even after the country was ceded to Russia in 1809, the aristocracy and nearly all those active in commerce, in the courts, and in education had Swedish as their native language. The country's bureaucracy did virtually all its written work in Swedish. Finnish speakers who desired to enter these groups learned Swedish. Only the clergy used Finnish on a regular basis, for they dealt with the bulk of the population who, for the most part, knew only that language. There were no campaigns to force Swedish on Finnish speakers however, and the problem of language as a social issue did not exist during the period of Swedish rule.

Swedish retained its primacy until the second half of the nineteenth century, when, as a result of budding nationalism, it was gradually displaced by Finnish. A good many of the strongest advocates of Finnish nationalism were Swedish speakers who used their own language in the patriotic pamphlets and journals of the time because few of them could write Finnish. By the end of the century, the nationalist movement had been successful in fostering the birth of Finnish as a written language and in bringing about the formation of an educated Finnish-speaking elite. Numbering 350,000 and constituting 13 percent of the country's population in 1900, Swedish-speaking Finns were still disproportionately influential and wealthy, but they were no longer dominant in the country of their birth.

Independent Finland's new Constitution protected the Swedish- speaking minority, in that it made both Finnish and Swedish national languages of equal official status, stipulating that a citizen be able to use either language in courts and have government documents relating to him or her issued in his or her language, and that the cultural and economic needs of both language groups be treated equally. The Language Act of 1922 covered many of the practical questions engendered by these constitutional rights. Despite these legal provisions, however, there were still currents of Finnish opinion that wished to see a curtailment of the Swedish-speaking minority's right to protect its cultural identity. Attempts at Finnicization failed, however, and the advent of the national crisis of World War II submerged disagreements about the language issue. Since the war, there have been occasional squabbles about practical measures for realizing the minority's economic and cultural rights, but none about the inherent value of the policy of equality.

The Language Act of 1922, and its subsequent revisions, arranged for the realization of the rights of the Swedish- speaking minority. The basic units for protecting and furthering the exercise of these rights were the self-governing municipalities. After each ten-year census, Finland's nearly 500 municipalities were classified as either unilingual or bilingual with a majority language. In the 1980s, there were 461 municipalities: 396 Finnish-speaking; 21 bilingual with a Finnish-speaking majority; 24 Swedish-speaking; 20 bilingual with Swedish as the majority language. A municipality was bilingual if the number of speakers of the minority language exceeded either 3,000 or 8 percent of its population. If a municipality had been classified as bilingual, it could not revert to unilingual status until the minority population declined to less than 6 percent.

Language classification had important consequences for the inhabitants of a municipality, for it determined which language was to be used for government business. In bilingual municipalities, all documents affecting the general public--tax forms, for example--had to be published in both languages. In addition, national and local government officials had to be bilingual--a requirement not always met, however--and public notices and road signs had to be in both languages. In unilingual communities this was not the case. Documents relating directly to an individual case could be translated, but otherwise official business was transacted in the municipality's language. If someone were involved in a court case, however, and did not know the prevailing language, translation would be provided.

The method used to classify municipalities had to be regarded as successful because, although the overwhelming majority of municipalities were unilingual Finnish-speaking communities, only 4 percent of the Swedish-speaking minority lived in municipalities where their language was not used. Finnish- speaking Finns fared even better, for less than 1 percent of them lived where their language was not used officially. Some of the Swedish speakers who lived apart from their fellows did so voluntarily because they had management positions at factories and plants in regions that were nearly entirely Finnish-speaking areas. Because they were educated, these managers knew Finnish. They were also representatives of the tradition of "brukssvenskar" (literally, "factory Swedes"), and were sometimes the only Swedish speakers their brother Finns knew.

On the national level, all laws and decrees had to be issued in both languages, and the Swedish-speaking minority had the right to have Swedish-language programs on the state radio and television networks. Swedish-language schools had to be established wherever there was a sufficient number of pupils. There were several Swedish-language institutions of higher learning, and a specified number of the professorial chairs at the University of Helsinki was reserved for Swedish speakers, as was one brigade in the army. A drawback for the Swedish-speaking minority, though, was that because of its small size, the national government could not, for practical reasons, publish in Swedish all parliamentary deliberations, committee reports, and official documents.

The Swedish-speaking minority was well represented in various sectors of society. The moderate Swedish People's Party (Svenska Folkpartiet--SFP) got the votes of most Swedish speakers, with the exception of workers who more often than not voted for socialist parties. The SFP polled enough support to hold a number of seats in the Eduskunta that usually matched closely the percentage of Swedish speakers in the country's total population. It very often had ministers in the cabinet as well (see The Swedish People's Party , ch. 4). An unofficial special body, the Swedish People's Assembly (Svenska Finlands Folkting), representing all members of the minority, functioned in an advisory capacity to regular governing institutions. Most national organizations, whether economic, academic, social, or religious, had branches or separate equivalents for Swedish speakers. Because of its long commercial and maritime traditions, the Swedish-speaking minority was disproportionately strong in some sectors of the financial community and the shipping industry. In general, however, with the exception of the upper middle class, where there were more Swedish speakers than usual, the class distribution of the minority matched fairly closely that of the larger community.

The size of the Swedish-speaking minority increased fairly steadily until 1940, when it numbered 354,000 persons, or 9.6 percent of the country's total population. Since then it has declined, dropping to 296,000, or 6.1 percent of the population, in 1987. In relative terms, however, it has been in decline for centuries, dropping from 17.5 percent in 1610, and it was expected to go below 6 percent by the end of the twentieth century. The decline stemmed from a variety of factors: a slightly lower birth rate than the rest of the population during some periods; a greater rate of emigration to the United States before World War I; a large loss of some 50,000 persons who settled permanently in Sweden in the decades after World War II; and frequent marriages with Finnish speakers.

By the 1980s, more than half the marriages of Swedish- speaking Finns were to persons from outside their language group. In urban areas, especially in Helsinki, the rate was over 60 percent. This was not surprising because the members of the minority group were usually bilingual, and there were no legal constraints (although there were sometimes social and familial constraints) against marrying those speaking the majority language. The bilingualism of the minority was caused by compulsory schooling in the majority language from the third school year on, and from living in a society where, with the exception of some rural areas, speaking only Swedish was a serious handicap because the majority group usually had a poor knowledge of Swedish, despite compulsory study of it for several years. Swedish-speaking Finns were easily able then to cross from one language group to another. However highly they valued their mother tongue and their group's cultural identity, they were not bound by them when selecting friends or spouses. A survey of the late 1970s found, for example, that Swedish-speaking natives of Helsinki felt they had more in common with natives of their city who did not speak their language than they did with Swedish speakers from other regions. More often than not, Swedish- speaking Finns married outside their group. These marriages posed a danger to their language community in that the resulting offspring were usually registered as speakers of the majority language, even when they were truly bilingual. Thus the Finnish practice of counting speakers of a language by the principle of personality, that is on an individual basis, rather than by the principle of territoriality, as was done only for the Aland Islands, was leading to a decline in the size of the Swedish- speaking minority.

Data as of December 1988

Background		Finland was a province and then a grand duchy under Sweden from the 12th to the 19th centuries, and an autonomous grand duchy of Russia after 1809. It won its complete independence in 1917. During World War II, it was able to successfully defend its freedom and resist invasions by the Soviet Union - albeit with some loss of territory. In the subsequent half century, the Finns made a remarkable transformation from a farm/forest economy to a diversified modern industrial economy; per capita income is now among the highest in Western Europe. A member of the European Union since 1995, Finland was the only Nordic state to join the euro system at its initiation in January 1999.
Location		Northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia, and Gulf of Finland, between Sweden and Russia
Area(sq km)		total: 338,145 sq km land: 303,815 sq km water: 34,330 sq km
Geographic coordinates		64 00 N, 26 00 E
Land boundaries(km)		total: 2,654 km border countries: Norway 727 km, Sweden 614 km, Russia 1,313 km
Coastline(km)		1,250 km
Climate		cold temperate; potentially subarctic but comparatively mild because of moderating influence of the North Atlantic Current, Baltic Sea, and more than 60,000 lakes
Elevation extremes(m)		lowest point: Baltic Sea 0 m highest point: Haltiatunturi 1,328 m
Natural resources		timber, iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, chromite, nickel, gold, silver, limestone
Land use(%)		arable land: 6.54% permanent crops: 0.02% other: 93.44% (2005)
Irrigated land(sq km)		640 sq km (2003)
Total renewable water resources(cu km)		110 cu km (2005)
Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural)		total: 2.33 cu km/yr (14%/84%/3%) per capita: 444 cu m/yr (1999)
Natural hazards		NA
Environment - current issues		air pollution from manufacturing and power plants contributing to acid rain; water pollution from industrial wastes, agricultural chemicals; habitat loss threatens wildlife populations
Environment - international agreements		party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
Geography - note		long boundary with Russia; Helsinki is northernmost national capital on European continent; population concentrated on small southwestern coastal plain
Population		5,250,275 (July 2009 est.)
Age structure(%)		0-14 years: 16.4% (male 438,425/female 422,777) 15-64 years: 66.8% (male 1,773,495/female 1,732,792) 65 years and over: 16.8% (male 357,811/female 524,975) (2009 est.)
Median age(years)		total: 42.1 years male: 40.5 years female: 43.7 years (2009 est.)
Population growth rate(%)		0.098% (2009 est.)
Birth rate(births/1,000 population)		10.38 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)
Death rate(deaths/1,000 population)		10.07 deaths/1,000 population (July 2009 est.)
Net migration rate(migrant(s)/1,000 population)		0.68 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.)
Urbanization(%)		urban population: 63% of total population (2008) rate of urbanization: 0.8% annual rate of change (2005-10 est.)
Sex ratio(male(s)/female)		at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.68 male(s)/female total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2009 est.)
Infant mortality rate(deaths/1,000 live births)		total: 3.47 deaths/1,000 live births male: 3.78 deaths/1,000 live births female: 3.15 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)
Life expectancy at birth(years)		total population: 78.97 years male: 75.48 years female: 82.61 years (2009 est.)
Total fertility rate(children born/woman)		1.73 children born/woman (2009 est.)
Nationality		noun: Finn(s) adjective: Finnish
Ethnic groups(%)		Finn 93.4%, Swede 5.6%, Russian 0.5%, Estonian 0.3%, Roma (Gypsy) 0.1%, Sami 0.1% (2006)
Religions(%)		Lutheran Church of Finland 82.5%, Orthodox Church 1.1%, other Christian 1.1%, other 0.1%, none 15.1% (2006)
Languages(%)		Finnish 91.2% (official), Swedish 5.5% (official), other 3.3% (small Sami- and Russian-speaking minorities) (2007)
Country name		conventional long form: Republic of Finland conventional short form: Finland local long form: Suomen tasavalta/Republiken Finland local short form: Suomi/Finland
Government type		republic
Capital		name: Helsinki geographic coordinates: 60 10 N, 24 56 E time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time) daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October
Administrative divisions		6 provinces (laanit, singular - laani); Ahvenanmaan Laani (Aland), Etela-Suomen Laani (Southern Finland), Ita-Suomen Laani (Eastern Finland), Lansi-Suomen Laani (Western Finland), Lapin Laani (Lapland), Oulun Laani
Constitution		1-Mar-00
Legal system		civil law system based on Swedish law; the president may request the Supreme Court to review laws; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations
Suffrage		18 years of age; universal
Executive branch		chief of state: President Tarja HALONEN (since 1 March 2000) head of government: Prime Minister Matti VANHANEN (since 24 June 2003); Deputy Prime Minister Jyrki KATAINEN (since 19 April 2007) cabinet: Council of State or Valtioneuvosto appointed by the president, responsible to parliament elections: president elected by popular vote for a six-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held 15 January 2006 (next to be held in January 2012); the president appoints the prime minister and deputy prime minister from the majority party or the majority coalition after parliamentary elections and the parliament must approve the appointment; Prime Minister VANHANEN reelected 17 April 2007 election results: percent of vote - Tarja HALONEN (SDP) 46.3%, Sauli NIINISTO (Kok) 24.1%, Matti VANHANEN (Kesk) 18.6%, Heidi HAUTALA (VIHR) 3.5%; a runoff election between HALONEN and NIINISTO was held 29 January 2006 - HALONEN 51.8%, NIINISTO 48.2%; Matti VANHANEN reelected prime minister; election results 121-71 note: government coalition - Kesk, KOK, VIHR, and SFP
Legislative branch		unicameral Parliament or Eduskunta (200 seats; members are elected by popular vote on a proportional basis to serve four-year terms) elections: last held 18 March 2007 (next to be held March 2011) election results: percent of vote by party - Kesk 23.1%, Kok 22.3%, SDP 21.4%, VAS 8.8%, VIHR 8.5%, KD 4.9%, SFP 4.5%, True Finns 4.1%, other 3.4%; seats by party - Kesk 51, Kok 50, SDP 45, VAS 17, VIHR 15, SFP 9, KD 7, True Finns 5, other 1
Judicial branch		Supreme Court or Korkein Oikeus (judges appointed by the president)
International organization participation		ADB (nonregional member), AfDB (nonregional member), Arctic Council, Australia Group, BIS, CBSS, CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EMU, ESA, EU, FAO, G-9, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC, MIGA, MINURCAT, NC, NEA, NIB, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, PFP, Schengen Convention, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMOGIP, UNTSO, UPU, WCO, WEU (observer), WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC
Flag description		white with a blue cross extending to the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side in the style of the Dannebrog (Danish flag); the blue represents the thousands of lakes scattered across the country, while the white is for the snow that covers the land in winter
Economy - overview		Finland has a highly industrialized, largely free-market economy with per capita output roughly that of the UK, France, Germany, and Italy. Its key economic sector is manufacturing - principally the wood, metals, engineering, telecommunications, and electronics industries. Trade is important; Finland's ratio of exports to GDP has risen from a quarter to 37% over the past 15 years. Finland excels in high-tech exports such as mobile phones. Except for timber and several minerals, Finland depends on imports of raw materials, energy, and some components for manufactured goods. Because of the climate, agricultural development is limited to maintaining self-sufficiency in basic products. Forestry, an important export earner, provides a secondary occupation for the rural population. Although Finland has been one of the best performing economies within the EU in recent years and its banks and financial markets have avoided the worst of global financial crisis, the world slowdown has hit export growth and domestic demand and will serve as a brake on economic growth in 2009 and 2010. The slowdown of construction, other investment, and exports will cause unemployment to rise. During 2009, unemployment will climb to over 8% of the labor force. Long-term challenges include the need to address a rapidly aging population and decreasing productivity that threaten competitiveness, fiscal sustainability, and economic growth.
GDP (purchasing power parity)		$194 billion (2008 est.) $192.4 billion (2007 est.) $184.8 billion (2006 est.) note: data are in 2008 US dollars
GDP (official exchange rate)		$271.9 billion (2008 est.)
GDP - real growth rate(%)		0.8% (2008 est.) 4.1% (2007 est.) 4.9% (2006 est.)
GDP - per capita (PPP)		$37,000 (2008 est.) $36,700 (2007 est.) $35,300 (2006 est.) note: data are in 2008 US dollars
GDP - composition by sector(%)		agriculture: 2.8% industry: 32.4% services: 64.9% (2008 est.)
Labor force		2.703 million (2008 est.)
Labor force - by occupation(%)		agriculture and forestry 4.5%, industry 18.3%, construction 7.3%, commerce 16%, finance, insurance, and business services 14.5%, transport and communications 7%, public services 32.4% (2008)
Unemployment rate(%)		6.4% (2008 est.) 6.9% (2007 est.)
Population below poverty line(%)		NA%
Household income or consumption by percentage share(%)		lowest 10%: 3.6% highest 10%: 24.7% (2007)
Distribution of family income - Gini index		29.5 (2007) 25.6 (1991)
Investment (gross fixed)(% of GDP)		20.6% of GDP (2008 est.)
Budget		revenues: $143.8 billion expenditures: $132.3 billion (2008 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices)(%)		4.1% (2008 est.) 2.5% (2007 est.)
Stock of money		$NA (31December 2008) $NA (31 December 2007) note: see entry for the European Union for money supply in the euro area; the European Central Bank (ECB) controls monetary policy for the 16 members of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU); individual members of the EMU do not control the quantity of money and quasi money circulating within their own borders
Stock of quasi money		$NA (31 December 2008) $NA (31 December 2007)
Stock of domestic credit		$241.1 billion (31 December 2008) $225.4 billion (31 December 2007)
Market value of publicly traded shares		$NA (31 December 2008) $369.2 billion (31 December 2007) $265.5 billion (31 December 2006)
Public debt(% of GDP)		33.7% of GDP (2008 est.) 46.8% of GDP (2004 est.)
Agriculture - products		barley, wheat, sugar beets, potatoes; dairy cattle; fish
Industries		metals and metal products, electronics, machinery and scientific instruments, shipbuilding, pulp and paper, foodstuffs, chemicals, textiles, clothing
Industrial production growth rate(%)		0.4% (2008 est.)
Current account balance		$5.518 billion (2008 est.) $10.12 billion (2007 est.)
Exports		$96.62 billion (2008 est.) $90.2 billion (2007 est.)
Exports - commodities(%)		electrical and optical equipment, machinery, transport equipment, paper and pulp, chemicals, basic metals; timber
Exports - partners(%)		Russia 11.6%, Sweden 10%, Germany 10%, US 6.4%, UK 5.5%, Netherlands 5.1% (2008)
Imports		$87.51 billion (2008 est.) $78.22 billion (2007 est.)
Imports - commodities(%)		foodstuffs, petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, transport equipment, iron and steel, machinery, textile yarn and fabrics, grains
Imports - partners(%)		Russia 16.3%, Germany 15.7%, Sweden 13.6%, Netherlands 6.3%, China 5.1%, UK 4.2% (2008)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold		$8.346 billion (31 December 2008 est.) $8.385 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
Debt - external		$339.5 billion (31 December 2008) $314.1 billion (31 December 2007)
Stock of direct foreign investment - at home		$84.44 billion (31 December 2008 est.) $88.69 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad		$116 billion (31 December 2008 est.) $114.2 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
Exchange rates		euros (EUR) per US dollar - 0.6827 (2008 est.), 0.7345 (2007), 0.7964 (2006), 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004)
Currency (code)		euro (EUR)
Telephones - main lines in use		1.65 million (2008)
Telephones - mobile cellular		6.83 million (2008)
Telephone system		general assessment: modern system with excellent service domestic: digital fiber-optic fixed-line network and an extensive cellular network provide domestic needs international: country code - 358; submarine cables provide links to Estonia and Sweden; satellite earth stations - access to Intelsat transmission service via a Swedish satellite earth station, 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions); note - Finland shares the Inmarsat earth station with the other Nordic countries (Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden)
Internet country code		.fi; note - Aland Islands assigned .ax
Internet users		4.383 million (2008)
Airports		148 (2009)
Pipelines(km)		gas 694 km (2008)
Roadways(km)		total: 78,141 km paved: 50,914 km (includes 700 km of expressways) unpaved: 27,227 km (2009)
Ports and terminals		Hamina, Helsinki, Kokkola, Kotka, Naantali, Pori, Raahe, Rauma, Turku
Military branches		Finnish Defense Forces (FDF): Army, Navy (includes Coastal Defense Forces), Air Force (Suomen Ilmavoimat) (2007)
Military service age and obligation(years of age)		18 years of age for male voluntary and compulsory - and female voluntary - national military and nonmilitary service; service obligation 6-12 months; mandatory retirement at age 60 (2008)
Manpower available for military service		males age 16-49: 1,169,910 females age 16-49: 1,121,187 (2008 est.)
Manpower fit for military service		males age 16-49: 962,479 females age 16-49: 920,297 (2009 est.)
Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually		male: 33,784 female: 32,621 (2009 est.)
Military expenditures(% of GDP)		2% of GDP (2005 est.)
Disputes - international		various groups in Finland advocate restoration of Karelia and other areas ceded to the Soviet Union, but the Finnish Government asserts no territorial demands
Electricity - production(kWh)		77.24 billion kWh (2007 est.)
Electricity - production by source(%)		fossil fuel: 39% hydro: 18.7% nuclear: 30.4% other: 11.8% (2001)
Electricity - consumption(kWh)		86.9 billion kWh (2008)
Electricity - exports(kWh)		3.335 billion kWh (2008 est.)
Electricity - imports(kWh)		16.11 billion kWh (2008 est.)
Oil - production(bbl/day)		9,789 bbl/day (2008 est.)
Oil - consumption(bbl/day)		215,600 bbl/day (2008 est.)
Oil - exports(bbl/day)		133,000 bbl/day (2008 est.)
Oil - imports(bbl/day)		347,400 bbl/day (2008 est.)
Economic aid - donor		ODA, $1.023 billion (2007)
Oil - proved reserves(bbl)		0 bbl
Natural gas - production(cu m)		0 cu m (2008 est.)
Natural gas - consumption(cu m)		4.735 billion cu m (2008 est.)
Natural gas - exports(cu m)		0 cu m (2008)
Natural gas - proved reserves(cu m)		0 cu m (1 January 2009 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate(%)		less than 0.1% (2007 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS		2,400 (2007 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths		fewer than 100 (2003 est.)
Literacy(%)		definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 100% male: 100% female: 100% (2000 est.)
School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)(years)		total: 17 years male: 17 years female: 18 years (2006)
Education expenditures(% of GDP)		6.4% of GDP (2005)

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