Source:

02.05.2005 - CIA World Factbook 2005: Population ("02.05.2005 - CIA World Factbook 2005") [ID 4610]

"Population:
4,677,401 (July 2005 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 18% (male 444,779/female 398,162)
15-64 years: 65.9% (male 1,480,557/female 1,603,743)
65 years and over: 16% (male 300,859/female 449,301) (2005 est.)

Median age:
total: 37.36 years
male: 34.93 years
female: 39.7 years (2005 est.)

Population growth rate:
-0.35% (2005 est.)

Birth rate:
10.25 births/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Death rate:
9.09 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Net migration rate:
-4.62 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Ethnic groups:
Georgian 70.1%, Armenian 8.1%, Russian 6.3%, Azeri 5.7%, Ossetian 3%, Abkhaz 1.8%, other 5%

Religions:
Georgian Orthodox 65%, Muslim 11%, Russian Orthodox 10%, Armenian Apostolic 8%, unknown 6%

Languages:
Georgian 71% (official), Russian 9%, Armenian 7%, Azeri 6%, other 7%
note: Abkhaz is the official language in Abkhazia"

Document(s): 02.05.2005 - CIA World Factbook 2005

05.05.2003 - Source: UN Human Rights Council (formerly UN Commission on Human Rights)

Report focused on situation of minorities in South Caucusus ("Miniorities in the South Caucusus (Paper prepared by Anna Matveeva)* E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.5/2003/WP.7") [#12907], [ID 5001]

Document(s): Open document

13.02.2003 - Source:

CIA World Factbook 2002: Georgia - People ("CIA World Factbook 2002: Georgia - People") [ID 4611]

"Population: 4,960,951 (July 2002 est.)
Age structure: 0-14 years: 19% (male 481,669; female 462,966)
15-64 years: 68.2% (male 1,631,351; female 1,752,230)
65 years and over: 12.8% (male 246,663; female 386,072) (2002 est.)
Population growth rate: -0.55% (2002 est.)
Birth rate: 11.48 births/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Death rate: 14.61 deaths/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Net migration rate: -2.39 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Sex ratio: at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.93 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.64 male(s)/female
total population: 0.91 male(s)/female (2002 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 51.81 deaths/1,000 live births (2002 est.)
Life expectancy at birth: total population: 64.67 years
female: 68.32 years (2002 est.)
male: 61.19 years
Total fertility rate: 1.48 children born/woman (2002 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: less than 0.01% (1999 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: less than 500 (1999 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths: less than 100 (1999 est.)
Nationality: noun: Georgian(s)
adjective: Georgian
Ethnic groups: Georgian 70.1%, Armenian 8.1%, Russian 6.3%, Azeri 5.7%, Ossetian 3%, Abkhaz 1.8%, other 5%
Religions: Georgian Orthodox 65%, Muslim 11%, Russian Orthodox 10%, Armenian Apostolic 8%, unknown 6%
Languages: Georgian 71% (official), Russian 9%, Armenian 7%, Azeri 6%, other 7%
note: Abkhaz is the official language in Abkhazia
Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99%
male: 100%
female: 98% (1989 est.)"

Document(s): CIA World Factbook 2002: Georgia - People

04.06.2002 - Source: Council of Europe - Parliamentary Assembly

Council of Europe: Population data ("Situation of refugees and displaced persons in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia [Doc. 9480]") [#7836], [ID 4612]

"61. The population of Georgia accounts for 5.5 million. Georgia is a multiethnic state made up of 68,8% of Georgians, 9% of Armenians, 7,4% of Russians, 5,1% of Azerbaijanis, 3,2% of Ossetians, 1,9% of Greeks, 1,7% of Abkhazians and 2,9% of others."

Document(s): Open document

02.2002 - Source:

Central Asia and the Caucasus, Journal of Social and Political Studies: Georgia: Potential Seats of Ethnic Conflicts (No 2 (14) 2002) ("Central Asia and the Caucasus, Journal for Social and Political Studies") [ID 4614]

"Like many other countries Georgia is a multinational state. For many centuries various ethnic groups came and settled on its territory. According to the 1989 census, it was home to several scores of nationalities, about ten of them living in compact groups. They formed what I call “the micro-islands of ethnic minorities.” Some of them found themselves in frontier areas living close to the states peopled by identical ethnic groups. Such are Armenian settlements in Javakheti bordering on Armenia, Azerbaijani settlements in Kvemo Kartli bordering on Azerbaijan, Ossetian settlements in Shida Kartli bordering on North Ossetia (Alania), Kistin (Vainakh-Chechen) settlements bordering on Chechnia, Avar settlements bordering on Daghestan. I use a conventional term of “the first different ethnic type” to describe those who live in these “ethnic islands.” Certain non-Georgian ethnic groups are more isolated from their ethnoses because their original territories have no common frontiers with Georgia. Their members live, as compact or dispersed groups, in all the regions of the republic. They are Russians, Greeks, Assyrians, Kurds, and others. They can be tentatively called “the second different ethnic type.” Abkhazia belongs to neither of the two groups despite the fact that its location (away from Georgia proper and next to the Georgian border) fed the separatist tendencies. It should be added that policy-wise the Abkhazians look at Russia rather than at Georgia their kindred ethnos. From this it follows that according to these features they are somewhere in between two “different ethnic types.”"

Document(s): Central Asia and the Caucasus, Journal for Social and Political Studies

2002 - Source: Public Defender of Georgia

Public Defender of Georgia: Catastrophic reduction of the Georgian population ("Report of the Public Defender of Georgia: On the Situation of Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms in Georgia") [#10578], [ID 4613]

"The fact of catastrophic reduction of the Georgian population vividly supports the truth
of these words. If the population of Georgia was 5,464,000 in 1991, the figure goes down to 4,
452,000 in 2001. The rapid reduction of the population (more than one million people) in such
a short period of time is an unprecedented fact for the Georgian history."

Document(s): publicdefender-geo.pdf

11.1998 - Source:

US State Department: Population of Georgia ("11/1998 - US State Department: Background Notes on Georgia") [ID 4615]

"Nationality: Noun and adjective -- Georgian(s).
Population (1997 est.): 5.16 million.
Population growth rate: -1.09%
Ethnic groups: Georgian 70.1%, Armenian 8.1%, Russian 6.3%, Azerbaijan 5.7%, Ossetian 3%, Abkhaz 1.8%, other 5%.
Religion: Georgian Orthodox 65%, Muslim 11%, Russian Orthodox 10%, Armenian Apostolic 8%.
Language: Georgian (official), Abkhaz also official language in Abkhazia.
Education: Years compulsory -- 11 . Literacy -- 99%.
Health: Infant mortality rate -- 22.5 deaths/1,000 live births. Life expectancy -- 68 years."

Document(s): 11/1998 - US State Department: Background Notes on Georgia

03.1994 - Source:

US Library of Congress: Population characteristics ("03/1994 - US Library of Congress: Population of Georgia") [ID 4616]

"According to the Soviet Union's 1989 census, the total population of Georgia was 5.3 million. The estimated population in 1993 was 5.6 million. Between 1979 and 1989, the population grew by 8.5 percent, with growth rates of 16.7 percent among the urban population and 0.3 percent in rural areas. In 1993 the overall growth rate was 0.8 percent. About 55.8 percent of the population was classified as urban; Tbilisi, the capital and largest city, had more than 1.2 million inhabitants, or approximately 23 percent of the national total. The capital's population grew by 18.1 percent between 1979 and 1989, mainly because of migration from rural areas. Kutaisi, the second largest city, had a population of about 235,000.

In 1991 Georgia's birth rate was seventeen per 1,000 population, its death rate nine per 1,000. Life expectancy was seventy-five years for females and sixty-seven years for males. In 1990 the infant mortality rate was 196 per 10,000 live births. Average family size in 1989 was 4.1, with larger families predominantly located in rural areas. In the 1980s and early 1990s, the Georgian population was aging slowly; the cohort under age nineteen shrank slightly and the cohort over sixty increased slightly as percentages of the entire population during that period. The Georgian and Abkhazian populations were the subjects of substantial international study by anthropologists and gerontologists because of the relatively high number of centenarians among them."

Document(s): 03/1994 - US Library of Congress: Population of Georgia

03.1994 - Source:

US Library of Congress: Overview on ethnic minorities ("03/1994 - US Library of Congress: Ethnic Minorities") [ID 5008]

"Regional ethnic distribution is a major cause of the problems Georgia faces along its borders and within its territory (see fig. 14). Russians, who make up the third largest ethnic group in the country (6.7 percent of the total population in 1989), do not constitute a majority in any district. The highest concentration of Russians is in Abkhazia, but the overall dispersion of the Russian population restricts political representation of the Russians' interests.

Azerbaijanis are a majority of the population in the districts of Marneuli and Bolnisi, south of Tbilisi on the Azerbaijan border, while Armenians are a majority in the Akhalkalaki, Ninotsminda, and Dmanisi districts immediately to the west of the Azerbaijani-dominated regions and just north of the Armenian border. Despite the proximity and intermingling of Armenian and Azerbaijani populations in Georgia, in the early 1990s few conflicts in Georgia reflected the hostility of the Armenian and Azerbaijani nations over the territory of NagornoKarabakh (see Nagorno-Karabakh and Independence , ch. 1; National Security , ch. 2). Organizations in Georgia representing the interests of the Armenian and Azerbaijani populations had relatively few conflicts with authorities in Tbilisi in the first postcommunist years.

Under Soviet rule, a large part of Georgian territory was divided into autonomous regions that included concentrations of non-Georgian peoples. The largest such region was the Abkhazian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Abkhazian ASSR; after Georgian independence, the Abkhazian Autonomous Republic). The distribution of territory and the past policies of tsarist and Soviet rule meant that in 1989 the Abkhaz made up only 17.8 percent of the population of the autonomous republic named for them (compared with 44 percent Georgians and 16 percent Russians). The Abkhaz constituted less than 2 percent of the total population of Georgia. Although Georgian was the prevailing language of the region as early as the eighth century A.D., Abkhazia was a separate Soviet republic from 1921 until 1930, when it was incorporated into Georgia as an autonomous republic.

In the thirteenth century, Ossetians arrived on the south side of the Caucasus Mountains, in Georgian territory, when the Mongols drove them from what is now the North Ossetian Autonomous Republic of Russia. In 1922 the South Ossetian Autonomous Region was formed within the new Transcaucasian republic of the Soviet Union. The autonomous region was abolished officially by the Georgian government in 1990, then reinstated in 1992. South Ossetia includes many all-Georgian villages, and the Ossetian population is concentrated in the cities of Tskhinvali and Java. Overall, in the 1980s the population in South Ossetia was 66 percent Ossetian and 29 percent Georgian. In 1989 more than 60 percent of the Ossetian population of Georgia lived outside South Ossetia.

The Ajarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Ajarian ASSR) in southwest Georgia was redesignated the Ajarian Autonomous Republic in 1992. The existence of that republic reflects the religious and cultural differences that developed when the Ottoman Empire occupied part of Georgia in the sixteenth century and converted the local population to Islam. The Ajarian region was not included in Georgia until the Treaty of Berlin separated it from the Ottoman Empire in 1878. An autonomous republic within Georgia was declared in 1921. Because the Ajarian population is indistinguishable from Georgians in language and belongs to the same ethnic group, it generally considers itself Georgian. Eventually "Ajarian" was dropped from the ethnic categories in the Soviet national census. Thus, in the 1979 census the ethnic breakdown of the region showed about 80 percent Georgians (including Ajars) and 10 percent Russians. Nevertheless, the autonomous republic remains an administrative subdivision of the Republic of Georgia, local elites having fought hard to preserve the special status that this distinction affords them.

The so-called Meskhetian Turks are another potential source of ethnic discord. Forcibly exiled from southern Georgia to Uzbekistan by Stalin during World War II, many of the estimated 200,000 Meskhetian Turks outside Georgia sought to return to their homes in Georgia after 1990. Many Georgians argued that the Meskhetian Turks had lost their links to Georgia and hence had no rights that would justify the large-scale upheaval resettlement would cause. However, Shevardnadze argued that Georgians had a moral obligation to allow this group to return.

Among the leading ethnic groups, the fastest growth between 1979 and 1989 occurred in the Azerbaijani population and the Kurds (see Glossary), whose numbers increased by 20 percent and 30 percent, respectively. This trend worried Georgians, even though both groups combined made up less than 7 percent of the republic's population. Over the same period, the dominant Georgians' share of the population increased from 68.8 percent to 70.1 percent. Ethnic shifts after 1989--particularly the emigration of Russians, Ukrainians, and Ossetians--were largely responsible for the Georgians' increased share of the population."

Document(s): 03/1994 - US Library of Congress: Ethnic Minorities