Data notes.

The data in this book are for the most recent year available; for details, see the Glossary. Regional aggregates include data for low- and middle-income economies only. Aggregates for regions and income groups are shown only if data are available for 66 percent of the economies in that group.

Symbols used:

0 or 0.0 indicates zero or small enough that the number rounds to zero at the displayed number of decimal places.

.. indicates that data are not available.

$ indicates current U.S. dollars.

Data are shown for economies with populations greater than 30,000 or for smaller economies if they are members of the World Bank. The word country (used interchangeably with economy) does not imply political independence or official recognition by the World Bank but refers to any economy for which the authorities report separate social or economic statistics.

The selection of indicators in these pages includes some that are being used to monitor progress toward the Millennium Development Goals. For more information about the eight goals--halving poverty and increasing well-being by 2015--please visit our Web site www.developmentgoals.org or see World Development Indicators 2009.