Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan is a central Asian country that was annexed to Russia in 1876, became a Soviet Republic in 1936, and achieved independence in 1991. The population is about 5.4 million, with a median age of 24.4 years; almost 30 percent of the population 14 years of age or younger. The people are predominantly Kyrgyz (64.9 percent), Uzbeck (13.8 percent), and Russian (12.5 percent), and primarily Muslim (75 percent) or Russian Orthodox (20 percent). The population growth rate is 1.4 percent with 23.3 births per 1,000 population, 7.0 deaths per 1,000, and net migration of minus 2.6 per 1,000; both the population growth rate and birth rate are among the highest in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Republics. The total fertility rate, an estimate of the average number of children born to each woman, is 2.7. Women live considerably longer than men: the male life expectancy at birth is 65.4 years while for women it is 73.6 years, resulting in substantial imbalance in the male/female ratio in the over-65 population (0.64 males per female). Literacy is almost universal, with 99.3 percent of males and 98.1 percent of females literate, and children are expected to attend school to the age of 12 or 13.

Kyrgyzstan is a poor country with a predominantly agricultural economy: the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita was $2,100 in 2008, among the lowest of the eastern European countries and former Soviet republics. Overall, Kyrgyzstan spends 4.3 percent of its GDP on health, which is split almost evenly between state and private expenditures. The per capita expenditure on health in 2002 was $14, a substantial drop from the $20 per capita spent in 1998.

A mother helps her daughter through labor and delivery in Issyk Kul Province in Kyrgyzstan.

However, maternal and child health is a high priority, and the country does well on many of the standard measures: immunization for common childhood diseases approaches 100 percent, and almost all births (98 percent) are attended by skilled health personnel and take place in health care facilities (96 percent). Eighty-eight percent of women have at least one prenatal care visit, and 81 percent have four or more. The maternal mortality rate in 2008 was 110 per 100,000 live births, the still birth rate was 32 per 1,000 total births, and the neonatal mortality rate was 31 per 2,000 live births. Save the Children, an international organization devoted to improving maternal and child health, places Kyrgyzstan in its Tier II or less developed countries, where it ranks 25th out of 66 countries on the Women's Index (taking into account factors such as life expectancy, maternal mortality, availability of modern contraception, and maternity leave benefits) and 32nd out of 66 countries on [Page 628]the Mothers' Index (taking into account additional factors related to children's health and well-being, such as the under-5 mortality rate and gender parity in primary school enrollment).