The beautifully illustrated introductory section gives a detailed profile of today's world and covers major contemporary geographical and global issues--such as environment and population growth--through maps, images, statistics, and graphics.

Forty-four city plans of the world's major cities, showing major places of interest, have also been revised.

The main features include 104 pages of authoritative mapping of the whole world; geographical reference section with flags, statistics and facts for the world's states and territories; statistics and world maps on major geographical themes, including earthquakes, population, cities, climate, and the environment; the latest images of the earth from space; historical mapping of the world from 1858 to the present day; and 45,000 index entries.