Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by a governor-general Prime minister: Danny Philip
Population
142,517,670
584,578
Life Expectancy
66.460 years
74.420 years
Capital City
Moscow
Largest city
Moscow (population: 10,381,200)
Honiara (population: 56,298)
Human Development Index
NA
0.591
GDP per capita
$17,000 US
Literacy Rate
99.4%
%
Corruption Perception Index
2.1
2.9
Percentage of Women in Parliament
NA
0%
Wealthiest Citizens
Mikhail Prokhorov ($9.5bn US)
NA
Unemployment Rate
6.600%
Death Penalty
Abolished in practice
Abolished
Political System
federation
parliamentary democracy
Independence date
24 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)
Religions
Russian Orthodox 15-20%, Muslim 10-15%, other Christian 2% (2006 est.) note: estimates are of practicing worshipers; Russia has large populations of non-practicing believers and non-believers, a legacy of over seven decades of Soviet rule
Church of Melanesia 32.8%, Roman Catholic 19%, South Seas Evangelical 17%, Seventh-Day Adventist 11.2%, United Church 10.3%, Christian Fellowship Church 2.4%, other Christian 4.4%, other 2.4%, unspecified 0.3%, none 0.2% (1999 census)
Languages
Russian, many minority languages
Melanesian pidgin in much of the country is lingua franca; English (official; but spoken by only 1%-2% of the population); 120 indigenous languages
Exports
petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas, wood and wood products, metals, chemicals, and a wide variety of civilian and military manufactures
External Debt
$519,400,000,000 $
Exchange Rate
Russian rubles (RUB) per US dollar - 24.3 (2008 est.), 25.659 (2007), 27.19 (2006), 28.284 (2005), 28.814 (2004)
Military Budget as percentage of GDP
3.900%
Beijing Olympics Medal Count
72
0
Location
Northern Asia (the area west of the Urals is considered part of Europe), bordering the Arctic Ocean, between Europe and the North Pacific Ocean
Oceania, group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, east of Papua New Guinea
Area
17,098,242 km sq
28,896 km sq
Coastline
37,653 km
5,313 km
Climate
ranges from steppes in the south through humid continental in much of European Russia; subarctic in Siberia to tundra climate in the polar north; winters vary from cool along Black Sea coast to frigid in Siberia; summers vary from warm in the steppes to cool along Arctic coast
tropical monsoon; few extremes of temperature and weather
