However, in terms of the city proper Shanghai is the most populous with 13,278,500 inhabitants. It is followed by: Mumbai (Bombay), India (12,622,500); Buenos Aires, Argentina (11,928,400); Moscow, Russia (11,273,400); and Karachi, Pakistan (10,889,100). Tokyo, the most populous urban agglomerate, is 15th with 8,294,200 inhabitants and Mexico City is in 12th place with 8,705,100 inhabitants.

For the total percentage living in urban areas view this statistic.

According to the Canadian council on social development, 16.2% of Canadians are living below the poverty line Including 14.6% of men and 17.7% of women. Those most affected by poverty include female-led sole parent families and single elderly people. One quarter of those living in poverty are children under 18 years of age.

Canada has no official definition of poverty with different organisations using different definitions. Poverty definitions include:

• Households which spend 20 percentage points more of their income on Food, clothing and shelter than the average Canadian household. If the average Canadian household spends 50% of its income on these essentials, those who spend 70% or more are considered to be poor.


• Statistics Canada low income measures.


• The Cost of Living Guidelines developed by the Social Planning Council of B.C.

Further information on poverty in Canada can be found on the Canadian council on social development web page.

In both Colombia and Mexico, 80-94% of the population have access to essential drugs. In Brazil, less than 50% have access to essential drugs. You can view this information by clicking on the view all countries link at the top of this page.

Also, note that this statistic gives the proportion of the population with access to essential drugs not the amount of drugs produced.

For information on illicit drugs see the illicit drugs and drug offences pages in the crime category.

Access to clean water is essential for good health, however in the year 2000, 1.1 billion people world-wide lacked safe water and 2.4 billion lacked adequate sanitation. As a result of water and sanitation related diseases 3 million people die every year.

Diarrheal diseases severely impact children, killing approximately 2 million per year and leaving many more with severe long-term health problems such as stunted mental and physical growth, weakened immune systems and low weight.

Factors which affect the availability of clean water include:

• Natural availability of water - Some regions have plentiful rainfall and waterways, others are drier.


• The level of pollution in freshwater supplies.


• Microorganisms - Water sources which have been contaminated by human or animal sewage (or dead animals) can contain high levels of disease-causing microorganisms. Microorganisms can be killed by boiling the water and many can be removed by a good filtration system.


• Suspended solids - These are all substances which do not dissolve in the water including soil and plant material. Most suspended solids can be removed by filtration.


• Salinisation levels - There are the levels of dissolved salts in the water. Dissolved salts can be removed through ditillation.


• Acidification - This is caused by pollution of nitrogen and sulfur oxides (from the burning of fossil fuels) in the atmosphere combining with rainwater to produce acid rain.

For further information on water related issues, see the statistics in the environment category.

Total adult literacy in South America ranges from 83% (in French Guiana) to 98.8% (in Guyana). In general female literacy (which ranges from 81.6% to 98.5%) is slightly lower than male literacy (which ranges from 84% to 99.1%).

Further literacy information for each country in South America can be found in the education category.

Statistics relating to technology including the number of mobile telephones, personal computers and televisions can be found in the media category.

A ZIP (Zoning Improvement Plan) Code is the postal code system used by the United States Postal Service.

The basic ZIP Code consists of five digits. The first digit represents a group of U.S. states, the second and third digits together represent a region or large city within that group, and the fourth and fifth digits represent smaller areas within the region or city.

When citing an electronic source you should include at least the following information.

• Document title or description


• An address (in Internet terms, a uniform resource locator, or URL). This is the most important piece of information and must be accurate. You can copy the URL from the address box in your browser.


• Date (either the date of information publication or the date of retrieval.)


• Author(s) details if possible.


• Additional information

As Nationmaster graphs are secondary sources (Nationmaster data comes from other sources), you should cite the graphs as follows:

There are many acceptable ways of citiing electronic sources including MLA, APA, Chicago and CBE. Check with your teacher which style is preferred / required. Details for citing internet sources using each of these styles can be found at Bedford St Martin http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/citex.html>citation styles online page.

Before using data from this site, please take note of the permission requirements in point 11 at the top of this page.

Nepalese children who do attend school are supposed to complete 5 years of primary education and five years of secondary education.

The female enrolment share at the primary level is 44.1 percent, while the percentage of primary girls out of school is 47 percent.

In the year 2000, 72.38 percent of >primary school age children were enrolled in school.

India became independent on 15 August 1947. Pakistan became independent one day earlier on August 14 1947. At that time, British India was divided into Pakistan (with two sections West and East) which was Muslim and India which was largely Hindu.

This division was never satisfactorily completed. In 1971, East Pakistan seceeded from Pakistan and became the separate nation of Bangladesh. The status of Kashmir is still under dispute. Pakistan controls the northwest portion, India controls the central and southern portion and the People's Republic of China has occupied the northeastern portion.

Other countries which became independent on August 15 in other years include The The Republic of Congo 1960, Bahrain 1971, North Korea 1945 and South Korea 1945. Thi sinformation is available on the independence page in the government category.