WUF13 in Baku: Cities of the Future or a Showcase of Global Contradictions?

Despite the continuing growth of wages, Azerbaijan’s labor market in 2026 is increasingly showing signs of structural inequality typical of resource-based economies, where high incomes are concentrated in a limited number of export-oriented sectors, while a significant share of the population remains in the low-income zone.

At first glance, Azerbaijan’s demographic picture appears stable. The population continues to grow, the state is expanding infrastructure spending, and the economy shows resilience on the back of energy revenues. Yet beneath this surface a more subtle and strategically significant process is unfolding — a gradual transformation of the population structure that could redefine the country’s growth model in the decades ahead.

In Baku, it is becoming harder to say where the working day begins. It is no longer tied to an office, no longer measured by turnstiles, and no longer ends when the lights go out. It starts with a notification — an email from a client, a new project, a request from another country.

Buzovna is an administrative unit in the Khazar district of the capital, representing a complex territorial structure. It includes three components: the historic village of Buzovna with a millennia-old history, the settlement of Zagulba (incorporated into Buzovna in the 1970s and later included in its composition), as well as a low-rise residential area that has developed since the early 2000s on lands of a former agricultural enterprise of the Presidential Administration, acquired with violations.