Country Comments

For the past decade Azerbaijan has been adding about 100,000 people a year to its population, almost all naturally born and only a very small percentage from immigration. Although rich in certain resources like oil and natural gas, its population is three times greater than the country’s carrying capacity which is not sustainable.

The country borders the Caspian Sea which "suffers from an enormous burden of pollution from oil extraction and refining, offshore oil fields, radioactive wastes from nuclear power plants and huge volumes of untreated sewage and industrial waste introduced mainly by the Volga River". Both seal and sturgeon populations are down over 90% from a century ago. (1)

Azerbaijan is the lowest-ranked country, after Armenia and the People’s Republic of China, in terms of failing the gender parity on sex ratio at birth. The international comparisons show that more progress is needed in key areas of gender equality, including improving maternal and child health, reducing the gender wage gap, and increasing women’s political representation. Overall, women earn only 50.6% of what men earn in the labor market. Women are underrepresented as business owners with only 21.5% of registered businesses being operated by women. (2)

(1) https://phys.org/news/2019-04-caviar-oil-caspian-sea-pollution.html

(2) https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/institutional-document/546166/azerbaijan-country-gender-assessment-2019.pdf