ENTRY ONE:
THE NATURE OF GEOGRAPHY
MAin informationTotal area: 185,180 sq km
Land area: 183,630 sq km Water area: 1,550 sq km Size comparative to U.S. territory: slightly more than 1.5 times the size of Pennsylvania |
All countries that share a border |
total distance of coastline |
Syria shares borders with Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. The total distance of all land boundaries is 2,363 km.
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The total distance of coastline is 193 km.
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Climate and terrain |
elevation |
The climate is mostly desert, hot, dry, sunny summers from June to August and mild, rainy winters from December to February along the coast, and cold weather with snow or sleet periodically in Damascus.
The terrain is primarily semiarid and desert plateaus, narrow coastal plains, and mountains in the west. |
Point of lowest elevation: unnamed location near Lake Tiberias -200m
Point of highest elevation: Mount Hermon 2,814 m |
ENTRY TWO:
population and migration
population infoPopulation: 17,185,170
Population Density: Net Migration Rate: -2.1/1000 people |
growth/decreaseCrude Birth Rate: 21.7
Crude Death Rate: 4 Rate of Natural Increase: 21.7 - 4 = 17.7 |
dependent populationPopulation ages <15: 31.95%
Population ages 65+: 4.11% Dependency Ratio: 36.06% |
life expectancyAt Birth (Total): 74.9 years
At Birth Females: 77.4 years At Birth Males: 72.5years |
Education
economy/wealth
Health
population pyramids
Demographic Transition models
Currently, Syria is in Stage 2 going to Stage 3 of the demographic transition model. The crude birth rate is very high at 21.7 while the death rate is very low at 4; this leads to a very high overall natural rate of increase at 17.7. Through development of technology, more and more people are surviving for longer years of life and many children are not getting infected and killed by viruses and diseases as before. Syria is still a developing country and through its state of war, it is, in a way, going backwards in the demographic transition and showing strange patterns of population through emigration and birth dependent on the current state of war.
GAPMINDER ACTIVE CHART (CRUDE BIRTH RATE VS WOMEN OF REPRODUCTIVE AGE MEAN YEARS IN SCHOOL)
Link: www.bit.ly/2djWeSn
Although it has a long way to go in development, Syria has shown a significant increase in development since 1970. There has been increased gender equality resulting in higher average numbers of years in school. With increased education comes a decrease in number of births per family. Syria probably still has some gender inequality preventing women from attending any tertiary school or further education or full-time jobs leading in more time to raise children and give birth at home.
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