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People
Cultural Identity
The people of Georgia do not generally call themselves Georgians. Instead, they refer to themselves as "Kartvelbi" and thy call the land of Georgia "Sakartvelo." The etymology of these names come from the name of an ancient divinity called "Kartlos" who is regarded as the father or the people of present-day Georgia.
The contemporary name of the nation state, Georgia, has often been associated with the apparent patron saint, St. George. However, scholars have suggested that this is an incorrect association. Instead, they assert that the name of the country comes from the names "Kurj" and "Gurj," which may actually be linked in some way with Arab and Persian roots. Others suggest that the name comes from the Greek word "Geo" for earth or land and dates back to the time in which Greeks came to the area of present-day Georgia and saw people working on the land.
The country of Georgia was known as "Gruzzia" in Russia part of the Soviet empire until it gained official independence in the early 1990s. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, however, it had been under continuous Russian jurisdiction and influence. This was because of Russian annexation, which had been issued inorder to gain protection from Persia.
Prior to that time, some combination of the territories that comprise modern Georgia had been ruled by the Bagratid Dynasty for about 1,000 years, including periods of foreign domination and fragmentation Cultural Context
Georgia's location at a major commercial crossroads and among several powerful neighbors has provided both advantages and disadvantages through some twenty-five centuries of history. Georgia is comprised of regions having distinctive traits.
The ethnic, religious, and linguistic characteristics of the country as a unit coalesced to a greater degree than before under Russian rule in the nineteenth century. Then, beneath a veneer of centralized economic and political control imposed during seventy years of Soviet rule, Georgian cultural and social institutions survived, thanks in part to Georgia's relative distance from Moscow.
As the republic entered the post-Soviet period in the 1990s, however, the prospects of establishing true national autonomy based on a common heritage remained unclear.
Cultural Demography
Today, ethnic Georgians comprise approximately 70 percent of a total population of around five million. An estimated eight percent of the population is Armenian; Russians, Azeris, Ossetians and Abkhazi make up the remainder.
While Georgian is the official language, Russian, Armenian, Azeri and Abkhaz are also spoken. Abkhaz is the official language of the Abkhazia region.
In terms of religious affiliation, 75 percent of Georgians are Christian Orthodox (65 percent are Georgian Orthodox; 10 percent are Russian Orthodox); 11 percent are Muslim and eight percent are Armenian Apostolic.
Human Development
The average life expectancy of Georgians at birth, according to recent estimates, is 65 years (61 years for males, 68 years for females). The infant mortality rate is rated as low as 19 deaths per 1,000 live births and as high as 51 deaths per 1,000 live births, depending on the source. An estimated 99 percent of the total population, age 15 and older, can read and write.
About 3.2 percent of GDP is spent in the country on educational expenditures. About 11.3 percent of GDP is spent on health expenditures. Access to sanitation, water, and health care is considered to be good.
One notable measure used to determine a country's quality of life is the Human Development Index (HDI), which has been compiled annually since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The HDI is a composite of several indicators, which measure a country's achievements in three main arenas of human development: longevity, knowledge and education, as well as economic standard of living. In a recent ranking of 169 countries, the HDI placed Georgia in the high human development category, at 74th place. Editor's Note: Although the concept of human development is complicated and cannot be properly captured by values and indices, the HDI, which is calculated and updated annually, offers a wide-ranging assessment of human development in certain countries, not based solely upon traditional economic and financial indicators.
Written by Dr. Denise Youngblood Coleman, Editor in Chief, www.countrywatch.com; see Bibliography for research sources.
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