Absheron Overpopulated, Regions Empty

The Institute of Geography of the National Academy of Sciences has sounded the alarm over the demographic crisis.

As stated during the event on the 70th anniversary of ANAS Ramiz Mammadov, the director of the institute, there is a vacuum in the country and the imbalance of population density. So, if on the Absheron peninsula there is a problem of over-population, in the mountain areas there is a process of outflow. "Dealing with the development of small and medium-sized towns, which are administrative district centers, the creation of new jobs will help prevent the influx of population into Absheron. There is a need for new towns and for bringing the existing regional centers to the level of cities," said Mamedov. According to him, currently the share of the working age population is 71.8%.

"There is a serious discrepancy in the age composition of the population. In the next 10-15 years the number of people of retirement age and their share in the total population will increase by several times. This can be a serious problem for the population growth and for ensuring the country's labor force," he said, noting that in 1990 the growth of the population in Azerbaijan amounted to 19-20 people per thousand inhabitants, while in the mid 90s this figure fell to 7-8. Today, the natural increase of the population had risen to 13-14 people per thousand residents. Today, the average annual population growth rate in the country is 1.2%, which is many times higher than in Armenia and Georgia," he said.

To solve these problems, the institute plans to create a department of human geography, as part of which the labs "Demographic development and geography of human settlement", "Socio-Economic and Political Geography", "Geography and scientific basis of tourism development" will operate. --- 17D-