Country explorer: Azerbaijan
EXPERIMENTAL
2024
Loading...
Overview
Azerbaijan is a mountainous, upper-middle-income country in Central Asia with a medium-sized population. Its economy has grown very rapidly in recent decades, and is based on oil and gas, agriculture and tourism.
Azerbaijan is actively investing in renewable energy projects to reduce its dependency on oil and gas.
Economy
Azerbaijan has experienced considerable economic advancements, reflected by a substantial increase in GDP per capita and a significant decline in poverty rates, alongside managing relatively stable inflation and decreasing unemployment rates, setting its economic transformation apart from some peers while mirroring the progress observed in other upper-middle-income countries.
Demographics
Azerbaijan has experienced steady population growth, fluctuating but generally positive net migration, a gradual decrease in fertility rates aligning with global trends, and a significant improvement in life expectancy that underscores advancements in healthcare and living standards, common to upper-middle-income countries but distinctive in its regional context for the scale of change.
Basic needs
Azerbaijan has significantly enhanced its population's access to basic needs, surpassing many of its peers in the Caucasus and Central Asia regions in terms of access to clean cooking fuels, electricity, safely managed drinking water, and sanitation facilities.
Human development
Azerbaijan has demonstrated significant progress in human development, as evidenced by improvements in its Human Development Index, reduced child mortality rates, consistently high literacy rates, and increases in average learning-adjusted years of schooling, aligning its trajectory with other upper-middle-income countries yet showcasing remarkable advancements in education and health amidst its regional peers.
Environment & energy
Azerbaijan has experienced substantial growth in forest area, notable advancements in renewable energy production, particularly in wind and solar, albeit with consistent carbon dioxide emissions per capita, mirroring a broader trend of gradual environmental progress amidst significant energy sector development.
Technology & innovation
Azerbaijan has demonstrated significant technological and innovative growth, marked by a notable increase in internet usage among its population, a surge in mobile phone subscriptions, moderate investment in research and development as a percentage of GDP, and a steady output of scientific and technical journal articles, aligning its trajectory with broader trends observed in upper-middle-income countries.
Culture & society
Azerbaijan has experienced a steady improvement in gender equality and life satisfaction levels, alongside a gradual increase in the age dependency ratio, mirroring trends observed in many upper-middle-income countries, albeit maintaining a significantly lower percentage of its population born abroad.
Governance
Azerbaijan has consistently exhibited low scores in the rule of law, corruption perception, political civil liberties, and press freedom indices, indicating a governance landscape marked by significant challenges in legal compliance, corruption, civil liberties, and press freedom, similarly reflected in other nations but with a distinctive persistence in these areas within its regional context.