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This article is about the demographic features of the population of Abkhazia, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health, socioeconomic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. The demographics of Abkhazia were very strongly affected by the 1992-1993 War with Georgia, which saw the expulsion and flight of over half of the republic's population, measuring 525,061 in the 1989 census.[1] The ethnic composition of Abkhazia in past and current times plays a central role in the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict.
[edit] SizeThe exact present size of Abkhazia's population is unclear. According to the census carried out in 2003 it measured 215,972 people[1], but this is contested by Georgian authorities. The Department of Statistics of Georgia estimated Abkhazia's population to be approximately 179,000 in 2003, and 178,000 in 2005 (the last year when such estimates were published in Georgia).[2] Encyclopædia Britannica estimates the population in 2007 at 180,000[3] and the International Crisis Group estimates Abkhazia's total population in 2006 to be between 157,000 and 190,000 (or between 180,000 and 220,000 as estimated by UNDP in 1998).[4] The size of Abkhazia's population more than halved due to the 1992-1993 war - at the time of the 1989 census it had measured 525,061.[2] [edit] Ethnic compositionThe population of Abkhazia remains ethnically very diverse, even after the 1992-1993 War. At present the population of Abkhazia is mainly made up of ethnic Abkhaz, Georgians (mostly Mingrelians), Hamshemin Armenians, and Russians. Prior to the war, ethnic Georgians made up 45.7% of Abkhazia's population, however, by 1993, most Georgians and some Russians and Armenians had fled Abkhazia or had been ethnically cleansed.[3] [edit] Historical developmentsThe earliest reliable records for Abkhazia are the Family Lists compiled in 1886 (published 1893 in Tbilisi), according to which the Sukhumi District's population was 67,846, of which 30,640 were Samurzaq'anians, 28,318 Abkhaz, 3,474 Mingrelians, 2,056 Greeks, 1,037 Armenians, 971 Russians and 62 Georgians[5]. Samurzaq'ano is a present-day Gali district of Abkhazia. Most of the Samurzaq'anians must be thought to have been Mingrelians (Georgian ethnic group) and a minority Abkhaz.[6] [7] According to the 1897 census there were 58,697 people in Abkhazia who listed Abkhaz as their mother tongue, 23,810 people listed Mingrelian as their mother tongue, 1,971 people listed Georgian (including Imeretian dialect) as their mother tongue.[8] The population of the Sukhumi district (Abkhazia) was about 100,000 at that time. Greeks, Russians and Armenians composed 3.5%, 2% and 1.5% of the district's population.[9] According to the 1917 agricultural census organized by the Russian Provisional Government, Georgians and Abkhaz composed 41.7% (54,760) and 30,4% (39,915) of the rural population of Abkhazia respectively.[10] At that time Gagra and its vicinity were not part of Abkhazia. During the Soviet Union, the Russian, Armenian, Greek and Georgian population grew faster than the Abkhaz, due to the large-scale migration enforced especially under the rule of Stalin and Lavrenty Beria, who himself was a Georgian born in Abkhazia.[11] In 2008 almost all of the circa 2000 Svans in the upper Kodori Valley fled Abkhazia when this tract of land was conquered by the Abkhazian army during the August war. The Abkhazian authorities have appealed for the Svan refugees to return[12], but by late March 2009 only 130 people continued to live in the upper Kodori Valley.[13] The Abkhazian government has been trying to attract members of Abkhaz diaspora (mainly in Turkey). Abkhaz officials claim about 2,000 people returned to Abkhazia since the early 1990s.[14] The following table summarises the results of the other censuses carried out in Abkhazia.
[edit] See also[edit] References
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