Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan is a secular democracy of 8.12 million people, most (93.4 percent) of whom are Muslim. After it's separation from the Soviet Union in 1991, Azerbaijan's economic, social, and health indicators began to decline. Although the country has significant oil reserves and national wealth has increased recently, Azerbaijan spends very little as a nation on public health. Although expenditures increased 60 percent from 2002 to 2004, in 2004 it ranked the fifth-lowest in the world for public health expenditures, spending only 0.9 percent of its Gross Domestic Product on public health measures. Private expenditures make up about 78 percent of the funds spent on health care. Inflation is a serious problem: the consumer inflation rate was estimated at 21.6 percent in 2008.