Azerbaijan

THE SOUTHWEST ASIAN nation of Azerbaijan was still caught up in 2005 in a battle with neighboring Armenia over the contested land of Nagorno-Karabakh that began in 1988. As a result of this battle, Azerbaijan has lost 16 percent of its territory and is coping with an internally displaced population of 571,000. Additionally, one-seventh of the Azerbaijani population is composed of refugees from Armenia and Uzbekistan.

As a result, Azerbaijan has the largest number of refugees in the world proportional to its population. To combat poverty, the government has initiated a number of antipoverty programs over the last decade. While these programs have been successful to some degree, 49 percent of the population remain under the poverty line and 21 percent continue to be malnourished. There is high inequality in Azerbaijan, where the poorest 20 percent hold only 3.1 percent of the country's resources, as opposed to 44.5 percent for the richest 20 percent. Azerbaijan is ranked 36.5 percent on the Gini Index of Human Inequality.

Some 41 percent of the Azerbaijani population are involved in agriculture and fishing, and periodic droughts frequently threaten general livelihood. The leading export is oil, but Azerbaijan has failed to realize the full potential of this resource. The government is slowly making progress in its transition from a socialist economy, but it is hampered by widespread corruption. Azerbaijan also faces the daunting task of dealing with extensive air, soil, and water pollution. The Apsheron Peninsula is considered to be the most ecologically devastated area in the entire world as a result of oil spills and the use of pesticides and defoliants. Despite economic woes, Azerbaijan has held unemployment to 2.1 percent.

The Azerbaijani population experiences a life expectancy of 63.35 years and a median age of 27.53 years. Females can expect to outlive males by approximately eight years. Some 26.4 percent of the people are under the age of 14, and 7.8 percent have reached the age of 65. Approximately 19 percent of the population lack access to safe water, and 22 percent lack access to proper sanitation. There are 359 physicians, most of whom are women, for every 100,000 residents. Some 20 percent of the population, however, lack access to affordable prescription drugs.

Infant mortality is relatively high in Azerbaijan at 81.74 deaths per 1,000 live births. This rate has increased since 2003, when 75 deaths occurred out of every 1,000 live births. Female infants are slightly hardier at a rate of 79.8 deaths per 1,000 as compared to 83.58 deaths per 1,000 for male infants. Mortality for children under the age of 5 is reported at 91 per 1,000. Seven percent of all Azerbaijani children are malnourished, and 11 percent of infants are underweight at birth. Childhood immunizations have remained in the 90 percent range for the past decade for all children from birth to 23 months. Some 27 percent of children receive essential oral rehydration therapy when needed.

Between 1980 and 2005, fertility rates in Azerbaijan dropped from 3.2 children to 2.33 children per woman. Adolescent fertility is currently estimated at 44 out of 1,000 births. Some 55 percent of women use birth control of some sort. The National Program for Reproductive Health and Family Planning was initiated to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases in addition to controlling fertility. Professional medical staff attend 88 percent of all births, but this is a decrease from 100 percent in 1990. Despite the accessibility of medical care, maternal mortality has increased over the past two decades. According to the 1995 model for determining maternal mortality, 37 deaths occurred out of every 100,000 live births. Using the 2000 model, however, that rate increases substantially to 94 per 100,000.

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