Probably also due to my new job*, I have discovered a strange affection for numbers within me. Add on top of that The Pocket World in Figures 2008 which The Economist was kind enough to send me for a new subscription I took out. Let’s have a look at some of the numbers from the region in international perspective. Of course all taken with a pinch of salt!

• Of the metropoles in the region, Tashkent scores worst - it comes in 18 places from the bottom in the quality of life index. Almaty is closing in, though, on the 31th last spot on that same list (compare Moscow, which is 43th from the bottom).
• Afghans make up the largest refugee population in the world (1.9 million people), Azerbaijan’s is the 9th-largest (0.23 million people).
• Speaking of which, Azerbaijan had the 4th-highest annual average growth rate between 1995 and 2005 in the world (10.2%). Kazakhstan comes on position 21 with 6.3%.
• Uzbekistan currently has the world’s 5th-highest annual inflation rate (21%).
• Kazakhstan’s foreign debt burden (as % of exports of goods and services) is the 20th-highest, after Turkey, and above Brazil. In a list of countries’ foreign debt as a percentage of GDP, Kazakhstan is at number nine (106%). Kazakhstan’s debt service ratio - i.e. debt service as a percentage of the country’s exports - stands at 42%, second only to Brazil (45%).
• Kyrgyzstan is Central Asia’s biggest recipient of foreign aid. In international perspective, the meagre $268mn put the small country at position 60. Tajikistan follows closely on position 64 with $241mn.
• Between 2000 and 2005, Tajikistan beat Kazakhstan in industrial output growth (11.6% vs. 11.3%). Kyrgyzstan is most dependent on agriculture in the region (34.1% of GDP, position 18 in international perspective).
• Uzbekistan is the least energy-efficient country in the world.
• 100% of Turkmenistan’s energy is produced from gas (number one worldwide).
• Kyrgyzstan has the sixth-worst brain drain in the world.
• Kazakhstan’s stock exchange had the second highest growth in market capitalisation between 2001 and 2006 (3,529%). Yet, it only ranks 52nd in terms of actual market capitalisation ($44bn).
• Uzbekistan saw the third-biggest growth rates worldwide in company listings between 2001 and 2006 (1,800%).
• Kyrgyzstan is only 22 spots away from the bottom in terms of car ownership per 1,000 inhabitants (39 cars). However, it ranks 15th in the category “most deaths in road accidents” (18 people killed per 100,000 inhabitants), only topped by Kazakhstan (12th, 21 people killed).
• Each Kazakhstani travels on average 809 km via train each year (rank 12 worldwide).
• Kazakhstan spends only 2.3% of its GDP on education, making it the 17th-worst country in the world in that category.
• Save Iraq and Afghanistan, Turkmenistan is the country outside of Africa with the highest infant mortality in the world (74 deaths per 1,000 live births).
• A tight race for the prime spot in the category “cardiovascular disease” - Turkmenistan comes in first worldwide (844 deaths per 100,000 population), Tajikistan second (753), Kazakhstan third (713), Uzbekistan sixth (663), Kyrgyzstan tenth (602).
• Uzbekistan is the mobile-phone-craziest country in Central Asia, with 68.4 subscribers per 100 people (rank 44 worldwide).
• Every Kazakhstani, from baby to pensioner, smokes 5 cigarettes per day - on average (rank 15).
• Kyrgyzstan has the 9th-highest incidence of murder per 100,000 inhabitants (8.0).
• Uzbekistan is the fourth-largest awarder of death penalties - with 62 executions per year.
• 489 out of 100,000 Turkmen citizens sit in prison (rank 5 worldwide).
• Baku is the city worldwide with the lowest city health and sanitation index value (27.6), Almaty comes in 9th, just behind Baghdad.
• Tajikistan protects 18.3% of its total land area for conservation purposes (rank 12).

*Probably also due to my new job, I couldn’t come up with anything better to post on!

The Blacksmith Institute, a US environmental organisation, has released the inglorious list of the world’s top ten most polluted places 2006. Mailuu Suu in Kyrgyzstan has the dubious honour of being the only place in Central Asia and the Caucasus that made it on this list, although Sumgayit on the Absheron peninsula near Baku had also been shortlisted.

As for Mailuu Suu:

There are twenty-three tailing dumps and thirteen waste rock dumps scattered throughout Mailuu-Suu, home to a former Soviet uranium plant. From 1946-1968 the plant produced and processed more than 10,000 metric tons of uranium ore, products which were eventually used to produce the Soviet Union’s first atomic bomb. What remains now are not atomic bombs, but 1.96 million cubic meters of radioactive mining waste that threatens the entire Ferghana valley, one of the most fertile and densely populated area in Central Asia.

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