Sudan

Edmund Fung
Mrs. Webster
11/11/2007
2-A

Demographics

Total population: 39,379,358

Birth rate: 34.86 births/1,000 population
Death rate: 14.39 deaths/1,000 population
Infant Mortality

rate: 91.78 deaths/1,000 live births

Total Fertility rate: 4.69 children born/woman
Age Distribution: 0-14 years: 41.6% (male 8,371,628/female 8,016,880)
15-64 years: 56% (male 11,080,025/female 10,956,458)
65 years and over: 2.4% (male 504,957/female 449,410) (2007 est.)
Life Expectancies: male: 48.24 years
female: 50.03 years
total population: 49.11 years
Percent Urban: 40%
Literacy rates: female: 50.5%
male: 71.8%
total population: 61.1%
 Sudan: Age-Sex Distribution, 2005 (Stage 2)
AGE
90 +yrs

85-89 yrs

80-84 yrs

75-79 yrs

70-74 yrs.

65-69 yrs.

60-64 yrs.

55-59 yrs.

50-54 yrs.

45-49 yrs.

40-44 yrs.

35-39 yrs.

30-34 yrs.

25-29 yrs

20-24 yrs

15-19 yrs.

10-14 yrs.

5-9 yrs.

0-4 yrs.

10 8 6 4 2 0 2 4 6 8 10
PERCENT
Edmund Fung 2A
 Government

Sudan currently has a provisional government. A provisional government is an

emergency or temporary government set up when the previous government has been

defeated or collapsed. A provisional government holds power until elections can be held.

The elections are planned to be held by 2009. Sudan’s leader is known as a president. The

president comes in to power by the citizens who voted for him/her. Citizens can vote as

long as they our 17 years or older. Yes, the citizens do play a role in voting for the

president. Women are also allowed to vote. As said in their new constitution, any citizen

has the right to change the government. The citizens of Sudan do have a lot of civil

liberties that we as Americans do. Here are some of their civil liberties that they have:

Freedom of Speech and Press

Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association

Freedom of Religion

Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation

Classification: Periphery
 Economics

Economic type: IMF macroeconomic reforms

Labor Forces: agriculture: 80%
industry: 7%
services: 13%
7.415 million people
Chief industries: Agriculture
Forestry and Fishing
Mining
Manufacturing
Enegry
GDP: $97.19 billion
Per capita GDP: $2400 per year
Percent of population below

provety line: 40% of populatoin

Classification: Semi-Periphery
 Transportation and Communication

Transportation:
Types and kilometer of roads: paved: 4,320 km
unpaved: 7,580 km
total: 11,900 km
narrow gauge: 4,578 km 1.067-m gauge; 1,400 km

Kilometer of Railroads: 0.600-m gauge for cotton plantations

total: 5,978 km
Types and number of airports: paved: 16
unpaved: 85
Communication:
Number of telephones: main land in use: 636,900
cell phones: 4.683 million
Number of televisions and

radios(stations): radio: AM 12, FM 1, shortwave 1

TV: 3 channels
Number of internet service providers &

who controls them: 21 private providers

 Overview

Sudan has a little bit of the periphery and semi-periphery class of a country. The

per capita GDP is in the semi-periphery section for $2400 a year. On the other hand,

Sudan’s government is currently corrupted and they are rebuilding it, therefore that would

lie in the periphery section. In simple words, I would put Sudan in the periphery section.

This is because of multiple reasons. Mainly the population is still rising greatly. Their

economy is not industrialized yet. The government is still not to a standard government.

Last but not least communications and transportation is still restricted.

There are a total of 39,379,358 people living in Sudan. The people in Sudan

mostly ranges from the 15 to 64 in age. Their population is very fast growing, with lots of

people younger in age. This is proven by the stage 2 population pyramid by the heresy

kiss shape showing that the a lot of people are born but die quickly. The birth rate is high

with 30-40 people per a 1000 people and the death rate is 15-20 people per a 1000

people. The infant mortality rate is 91 deaths out of 1000 new infants. The life

expectancy is relatively low averaging at 49. The total fertility rate is about 5 newborns

per women. All these factors described are periphery statistics. The literacy rate which is

61.1 percent of the population is the only element in which Sudan’s people lies in the

semi-periphery classification. People are very important in a country. With powerful and

innovative people, you can have a strong nation. But with that said, in Sudan, the

population is still in its developing status and the whole country is only 40% urbanized.

The diagram as shown in the demographics show that the population has a high birth rate,

then people died out till the age of 90. The shape of the pyramid is very steep and spiked
concluding that this is a stage 2 country. With a population of young, fast growing but

dieing quickly people, it puts the people section of Sudan in the periphery section as that

Sudan is still trying to develop a stable population of people.

Sudan’s economy is trying to rebuild with the IMF macroeconomic reforms. The

IMF is the International Monetary Fund. It is the international organization that watches

the global financial system. They are using the profit from the oil that they sell as the

driver of their economy, since crop prices are dropping. Sudan has a very crossed

economy. Sudan has an agricultural based economy. They are not yet very industrialize

and in to cities yet. The country’s buying power is $97 billion, which lies in the semi-

periphery area. That’s the same for their GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per person, or

per capita, is $2,400, also in the semi-periphery area. With those places in semi-periphery,

they still mostly farm. They have a full labor force of 7.415 million people. More than

50% of the labor force is in agriculture. Only 7 percent is in industry and 13 percent in

services. This is because most of the people farm, and more than 50% of the land in

Sudan is farmland. That pretty much means that Sudan’s labor force sits in the periphery

section since I believe that in a developing country should be striding for an

industrialized economy and that they should focus less on farming. Although most of

Sudan’s economy is agriculture, only 40% of the people are below the poverty line.

Sudan’s chief industries would include, energy, mining, fishing and foresting,

manufacturing and agriculture. I would also put the economy of Sudan with people of

Sudan in the periphery category just because they still have mostly farming and not

industrialized labor forces.

 To put Sudan’s government into a category is actually pretty easy. Since there is

fighting in Sudan and the government is very unstable, the government will be periphery.

Infact, they don’t have a standard government at all. This is because of their civil war.

Sudan’s government is currently a provisional government. A provisional government is

an emergency or temporary government set up when the previous government has been

defeated or collapsed. This government will stand in place until the elections by 2009.

The citizens do have the right to vote as long as they are over the age of 17. Although

there is discrimination by religion towards women, women are allowed to vote. Sudan

has a president like the United States of America. Overall in this provisional government,

the citizens has most civil liberties as us Americans such as, Freedom of Speech and

Press, Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association, and Freedom of Religion. But

since Sudan has an unstable government, I would still place Sudan’s government into the

periphery zone. This is because an unstable government can never lead to a developed

country or even a developing country with the corruptness and that the money all just

flies into the hands of the so called “ leaders”. Although they have a temporal workable

government, things can still get out of control due to the war tension.

So far, economy, people and government of Sudan have all settled in to the

periphery part of the chart. Therefore for Sudan would be periphery overall since those

were the most important “drivers” in a country. The government controls the country

domestically including the people while the economy will help gain power

internationally. The people are the power source to move both the economy and the

government because the people are the ones who make the business and the people (in
most cases such as Sudan) drive the government. Now lets look at the minor but can be

life-changing issues such as communications and transportation.

Communication in turns of landline telephone is very rare compared to cell

phones. Infact, only 5 million of the 39 million people actually have a landline phone or a

cell phone. The statistics on this is really weird. This is because more people have cell

phones then landline. About 4.6 million people have cell phones against 636,900 landline

phones in Sudan. At the beginning, I thought the opposite, but it comes clear that there

was no government to help company to lay the lines safely. There are very few radio

stations, only 14 total; 12 AM, 1 FM, and 1 shortwave. Television for Sudan is even more

pitiful. They only have 3 channels compared to the USA having 2218 channels. Both the

radio and television stats would put Sudan into the periphery section. In contrast to the

very few radio and television stations, Sudan has 21 private internet providers which

would put that in the core section. Communication for Sudan also lies in the periphery

area because their availability is very limited and not secured. Although you may argue

with the internet service that they are not periphery but here are little more information

about their computers. There are 3.6 computers per 1000 people and that only 3.2 percent

of the population has internet access. So even if they have 21 internet providers, its not

like it is going to help at all with the amount of users in Sudan. In finality,

communication will still stay in the in periphery section.

Transportation is very limited in Sudan. All of the transportation in Sudan sits in

the periphery section. There are very few airports with actual paved runways. It is a 16 to

85 ratio of paved to unpaved airports. Only 5,978 kilometers of railroad run through

Sudan and that is very little for 2.376 million sq km (size of Sudan) of land. Good thing
Sudan still provided 11900 km of highway, or how would we get around? But still more

than half (7,580 km) is unpaved dirt road. Only 4,320 km is paved road. Sudan suffers the

most in the transportation area. They barely have a decent transportation to even make it

out of their little cities. Finally, I would also put Sudan’s transportation into the semi-

periphery area.

In conclusion, Sudan is a periphery country. Although some of the things do lie in

other categories, with some logical thinking, we must conclude that Sudan falls into the

category of periphery. Its economy and government are most likely the most important in

a country for it to function, and they are both periphery. Again, the government has the

power within a country, and that economy is the power of country internationally. People

come second and they are the workers who drive both the economy and the government.

The people section of Sudan also lies in the periphery section. Sudan’s services such as

communication and transportation for the population also lie in the periphery section. So

as a final word, Sudan is categorized as the least developed country in the world by the

UN, which is also known as periphery.

 Climate

Sudan has the total of five climates. They are tropical wet, tropical wet and dry,

semiarid, highland, and desert. Their main climate zone is desert. It covers half of the

whole country from the northern border to the Marra Mountains and Nuba Mountains.

The topography, mountains, act as a barrier so that the desert doesn’t spread to the

southern part of the country. Since Sudan lies in the lower latitudes of the world, the sun’s

rays all shine across there therefore giving us a very dry and hot area. Also, the northern

part is hotter then the south because the north is next the Red Sea and the south is more

inland. Continentality proves that the more inland you go the air will cool down. So if the

southern part of Sudan is more inland, and they will receive colder air. The Red Sea is

towards the northern border of Sudan. There is a possibility that the shores are cooled by

water currents but the Red Sea Hills act as a barrier so that the cooler air wouldn’t spread

to the deserts. The two deserts in this location are Nubian Desert and Libyan Desert. The

next biggest climate zone is semiarid. It basically covers the rest of south Sudan except

for the edges. The topography of the mountains north of this climate zone blocks the

northern deserts from invading the semiarid area. Again for continentality, southern

Sudan is more inland therefore air currents which comes in would cool the land.

Although there is cool air, the general location of Sudan is in the lower latitudes,

therefore the sun’s rays will still heat things up. The tropical wet and dry area is along the

southern border. This climate zone is still dry, but it is composed of the landforms and the

elevation by the Imatong Mountains and the Ironstone plateau. The high elevation

separates this region from the semiarid region up north. The climate zone of highlands is
mostly because of mountains on the west side of Ethiopia. One of the mountains which is

closest to the border would be Tulu Welel mountain. The mountain stretches into Sudan.

This is why this climate zone only protrudes into Sudan and is not a main climate zone.

The last climate zone is also one that just touches Sudan. The tropical wet is the smallest

climate zone in the whole Sudan country. It is mostly from the area of the Dem. Rep. of

the Congo. The continentality, latitude and topography mark this climate zone just the

same as the others. Overall, Sudan is a very arid and dry country since they are lower in

latitude. Because of continentality, air currents, water currents, latitude, elevation and the

topography, the climate zones also varies within Sudan.