PEOPLE IN MONGOLIA

Archaeological finds suggest that primitive man appeared in what is now Mongolia 300,000 to 350,000 years ago and recent investigations suggest that Mongols take their origin from the Huns (or Huunu) who lived in Central Asian Countries many years ago.

The term 'Mongol' only gained prominence in the early 13th Century with the emergence of the Mongolian ethnic unit and the formation of a single state. The word 'Mongol' has two suggested meanings. The first is a geographical name 'Mon gol' which means the river Mon. The second suggestion is that it should be pronounced 'Mun gol', interpreting 'Mun' as correct, basic or true and 'gol' as pivot, centre or essence. The combination would then be 'true essence'.

The development of the present ethnic composition has gone through several historical stages. The formation and disintegration of numerous military tribal alliances of ancient nomads and their mass migrations over vast expanses of the Euro-Asian steppes, resulted in the emergence of the Mongolian Nationality which consists 86% of Khalkh-Mongol tribes. The population of Mongolia consists of twenty ethnic groups although their are few differences in language. Only the Kazakhs speak in their mother tongue. Kazakhs, Derbets, Buryats and other national minorities are concentrated where they have always lived.

The 1998 population of Mongolia was estimated to be 2.42 million, showing an increase of 1.4% compared to 1997. However, even today, there are more Mongolians living outside Mongolia than in it.49.6% of the population are male. In 1998, the percentage of the population aged under 15 years was 35.6 and over 65 years, 3.9%. The population density is around 1.5 people per square kilometre. Seventy-two percent of the population are in the labour force.

There are approximately five hundred and twenty thousand families of which one hundred and seventy thousand are herders. The others live in urban centres. Approximately 51% of the population is urbanised, 27% in Ulaanbaatar. The birth rate is 2.06%, the death rate 0.66% and infant mortality rate 3.5%