1957 - United Nations Statistics Division

NOMENCLATURE
Table I-the most comprehensive in terms of coverage
-also serves as a guide to current official nomenclature
or terminology, the country names used in Table 1 being
the official titles in use in the United Nations as of 1
November 1957.1
In other tables, however, it has been found convenient
-because of space limitations-to use certain abbreviated
or short titles for some areas so long as these are generally
understood. The areas for which such shortened
titles are employed in Tables 3-31 are the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which is
listed as "United Kingdom"; the United States of America,
which is given as United States; the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics, the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic,
and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic,
which are listed respectively as USSR, Byelorussia, and
Ukraine; the Federal Republic of Germany and the German
Democratic Republic, which appear as West and
East Germany respectively; China, the data for which are
shown under "China, Mainland" and "China, Taiwan";
Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam shown as Viet-Nam,
North and the Republic of Korea, for which the term
"Korea, South" is employed.
ARRANGEMENT OF COUNTRY NAMES
The arrangement of the country names in the stub and
boxheads of the tables is of two types.
Table I shows, for each continent separately (beginning
with Africa and proceeding in English alphabetic order) ,
all of the major geographic units of the world classified
according to broad administrative-status groups. Countries
shown first in each continent, without a category
heading, are sovereign areas; they are followed by "territories
and dependencies", "Trust Territories", areas under
"military government", and "condominiums", each
further classified by administering authority. All areas
within a category are arranged in English alphabetic
order.
Tables 3-31, on the other hand, show those geographic
units for which statistics are available, arranged in English
alphabetic order within continents, but without
classification according to dependency status. Names of
sovereign states appear alone; names of territories, colonies,
protectorates, dependencies, and overseas departments
are followed by the initials of the "mother country"
(placed in brackets) which identify the administering
kingdom, commonwealth, union, republic, or other authority.
An exception to this practice may be found in
connexion with Sikkim, which is a protectorate of the
Republic of India but data for which are included with
those for the Republic. Likewise, data for the Kurile
Islands and Southern Sakhalin, administered by the Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics since the termination of
1 United Nations. Terminology Unit. Names of Countries and Adjectives
of Nationality. Document ST/CS/SER.F/127, 8 March 1957,
23 p. Mimeo. Also document ST/CS/SER.F/127/Add. 1,19 September
1957, 1 p. Mimeo.
Statistics of territorial expanse or area will be found in
Tables I and 2 of this issue. Table I shows the most recent
AREA
14
World War II, are included with those for that country.
Changes in administration which have occurred since
the 1956 issue of the Yearbook are reflected in Table I.
It will be observed, for example, that the Federation of
Malaya now appears among the sovereign countries, under
the letter "M", having acquired independence on
31 August 1957. Independent Ghana replaces both the
former Gold Coast and that part of Togoland formerly
under British administration. This change was effective
6 March 1957. The Saar, incorporated into the Federal
Republic of Germany on I January 1957, no longer
appears alone except where it is impossible to integrate
the data.
It should be emphasized that the form of presentation
in these tables does not imply official endorsement or acceptance
by the United Nations of the status or boundaries
of the territories as listed or described. It was adopted
solely for the purpose of providing a convenient geographic
basis for the accompanying statistical series. The
same qualification applies to all notes and explanations
concerning the geographic units for which data are presented.
EVALUATION OF QUALITY OF DATA
Known variations in definitions and in methods of estimation
and tabulation are, as usual, set forth in footnotes
to each table. The implications of the qualifications, as
well as technical sources of error and possible misinterpretation,
are reviewed in the text for each table beginning
on p. 18.
As in previous Yearbooks, the latest estimate of population
(in this case, that for 1956) has been classified by
type, and current vital statistics have been evaluated for
"completeness". Because of format limitations, the code
applied to distinguish one type of population estimate
from another appears only in connexion with Table I;
that which qualifies the vital statistics appears only in the
trend tables of live birth, death, infant mortality, marriage,
and divorce (Tables 6, 7, 8, 9, 22 and 23) .
Another qualifying index, re-introduced in the 1953
Yearbook, has been continued. This is a dagger (t) used
to distinguish those statistics which have been tabulated
according to the year of registration of the vital event,
rather than by the year of its occurrence. The importance
of this qualification, especially in evaluating live births,
cannot be overemphasized; a detailed exposition of its
implications will be found on p. 25 below.
DISCREPANCIES AMONG TABLES
In preparing these tables for publication, occasional
slight disparities were found in the statistics dealing with
different characteristics for the same area and year. Although
most of these were corrected or reconciled by
co.nsulting published sources or through correspondence
WIth the Governments concerned, a few unresolved differences
still remain. Irrespective of their magnitude, these
are noted in the tables wherever they appear.
area value for every geographic unit of the world; Table
2 shows an aggregate area for continents, regions, and the