Foreword

The world bank Atlas, with its maps and statistics covering three broad areas he people the economy and the environment draws on an extensive range of information to illustrate differences in living conditions throughout the world both between and within regions.

In many developing countries the opportunities for economic growth have been, and remain, favorable, in the last ten years, nearly 100 countries have experienced overall growth in per capita income, and evidence suggests that the level of poverty declines as an economy expands. High growth countries are in nearly every region. Chile and Uruguay in Latin America Namibia Botswana and Uganda in Africa and Number of countries in Asia, notably Thailand, many of these Latin American and Asian Countries also have high levels of literacy, reflecting the link between basic education and growth. Since 1970, about the time the first Atlas was published. An even more dramatic improvement has occurred world wide: infant mortality rates across all developing countries have almost halved, from 96 in every thousand births in 1970, down to 55 in 1993.

Although much progress has been made, significant disparities exist and much development work remains. For instance the average life expectancy for high income countries rose from 71 in 1970 to 77 in 1993 but the low income population still has an average life expectancy of only 62 years. And while in  most parts of the world women make up more than 30 percent of the labor force. In 20 countries women still form less than 20 percent of the formal workforce.

It is these issues and others that the Atlas high lights each year in an effort to strengthen global understanding of the measures of development.

Michael Bruno senior vice President Development Economics and chief Economist the world bank.

Avant-propos  

Recueil de cartes et de statistiques couvrant trios grands themes, la population, peconomie et environnement, atlas de al banque mondiale appuie sur toute une gamme d information’s pour mettre enlumiere les monde aussi bien entre les diverses regions que dans une meme region.