Social sphere

Azerbaijan is directing increasing amounts of money towards healthcare, yet the answer to the central question — how much is spent on preventing disease and how much on treating its consequences — rem...

The list begins with ordinary things: white shirts, trousers or a skirt, a jacket, school shoes and sportswear. Then come the backpack, pencil case, notebooks, pencils, modeling clay, drawing pad and...

A smaller wheat harvest, disruptions along key trade routes and rising fertiliser prices are creating a new wave of risks for Azerbaijan, where domestic production covers only about 60% of wheat deman...

Traffic violations from motorways to rural roads A fine: a tool or a sanction? The purpose of a fine is not to punish the driver, but to prevent traffic violations and crashes. The success of a fine p...

Where Azerbaijan’s mandatory insurance system leaves patients alone with the bill Azerbaijan’s mandatory health insurance system is rapidly expanding the number of covered services and operations. Yet...

Azerbaijan has substantially increased pension payments since 2018, with average pensions rising faster than official inflation. Yet pensioners devote a disproportionately large share of their income...

Trump’s Pricing Policy in the United States and Rising Medicine and Healthcare Costs in Azerbaijan The Central Question What do the new steps to lower medicine prices in the United States reveal when...

Digitalisation has accelerated the distribution of benefits and reduced opportunities for intermediaries. Yet the eligibility rules can still exclude families that are poor in terms of their living st...

Who receives targeted social assistance — and why some people in need remain outside the system Azerbaijan will allocate AZN465mn in 2026 for targeted state social assistance. The programme is intende...

One of the most notable instruments in Azerbaijan’s housing policy in recent years has been the rent-to-own mechanism. Instead of buying a home outright or taking out a conventional mortgage, the mode...

Why citizens leave to work abroad — and how labour migration changes families In one household in Azerbaijan’s Shamakhi district, the family’s life was long determined not by the agricultural calendar...

Wages are rising, but family budgets barely notice Azerbaijan’s statistics offer a reassuring picture. Household incomes are rising faster than inflation, wages continue to grow and the manat remains...

Azerbaijan’s preparations for the winter season How ready are the energy, heating, water and emergency systems for the winter of 2026–2027? The Azerbaijani proverb “Prepare for summer in winter, and f...

The management of the Baku Metro has begun implementing the long-announced project to separate, or more precisely disentangle, the Red and Green lines of the city’s underground railway system. The mea...

Azerbaijan’s minimum wage exceeds the official subsistence minimum. But after mandatory deductions, the difference between the two falls to just 41 manats, while renting a home turns the formal surplu...

In the first half of 2026, average wages in Azerbaijan formally outpaced headline inflation. Yet food, rents, housing, utilities and some forms of transport rose faster than the incomes of many worker...