Year of Sudan’s independence from the United Kingdom: 1956

Sudan’s population versus Canada’s population: 45 million, 34 million

Sudan land mass: 967,500 square miles – almost the size of the United States east of the Mississippi

Infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births for Sudan and the United States, respectively: 68.07, 6.06

Life expectancy for Sudan and the United States: 55.42 years, 78.37 years

Median age for Sudan and the United States: 18.5 years, 36.9 years

Average years of schooling for a Sudanese child: 4

Percent of people who live in poverty: 40

Barrels of oil reserves in Sudan versus the entire European Union: 6.8 billion, 5.4 billion

Barrels of oil pumped on a monthly basis in Sudan: 10-13 million

GDP growth from 2001 to 2009 in Sudan: more than 300 percent

Military coups in Sudan between 1958 and 1989: 6

Times the International Criminal Court, which began at The Hague in 2002, issued a warrant for the arrest of a sitting president for genocide and crimes against humanity prior to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in July 2008: 0 (other war-crimes courts issued warrants against Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia and Charles Taylor of Liberia).

Average age of child soldiers in the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, according to the United Nations: 16

Youngest soldier in the militia: 9

Amount China has invested in Sudanese oil infrastructure in the last decade: $20 billion

Percent of Sudanese military arms supplied by China from 2001 to 2008, according to the United Nations: 72

Number of Congressional resolutions calling for peace in Sudan since 2005: 27

People who died in the five-year Darfur conflict: 300,000

During 22 years of civil war, from 1983 to 2005, number of displaced in Sudan: 4 million

Number of deaths in the conflict: 2 million

Height of Sudanese-born NBA star and peace activist Manute Bol: 7 feet, 6 inches

U.S. foreign aid expenditures in Sudan since the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement: $6 billion

Embassies and consulate offices in Khartoum: 53

Percent in South Sudan who voted for independence in the January referendum: 98.8