Mongolia population

• 1918 - 647.5 thousand people (census) ^[1] ;
• 1935 - 738.2 thousand people (census) ^[1] ;
• 1944 - 759.1 thousand people (census) ^[1] ;
• 1956 - 845.5 thousand people (census) ^[1] ;
• 1963 - 1071.1 thousand people (census) ^[1]
• 1969 - 1197.6 thousand people (census) ^[1] ;
• 1979 - 1595.0 thousand people (census) ^[1] ;
• 1989 - 2044.0 thousand people (census) ^[2] ;
• 2000 - 2,373.5 thousand people (census) ^[2] ;
• 2011 - 2811.6 thousand people ^[2]
• 2015 - 3057.8 thousand people (medium-term census) ^[3]

According to forecasts, by the end of the XXI century, the population of Mongolia may be reduced to 1 million as a result of a decrease in the birth rate ^[4] .

Mongolia is a mono-ethnic state . The largest population (94%) are representatives of the Mongolian group . Also in Mongolia there are Turks and a small number of Russians and Chinese . The Mongolian ethnic community has developed in Central Asia . In the X century AD, a significant part of this territory was the habitat of the Mongol-speaking Khitan . In XIII, the Mongolian-speaking tribes living here were united by Genghis Khan in one power, which served as the beginning in the formation of the Mongolian nationality. After the collapse of the Mongol empire in the 14th century, already in the 15th century the Mongols were divided into western and eastern groups, and in the middle of the 16th century the eastern, in turn, broke up into the northern and southern.

The dominant ethnic group of the Mongols living in the country includes the Khalkha-Mongols ( Khalkh ), numbering 2,168,141 people, accounting for 82.40% of the total population of the country (2010 census), as well as the Buryats . Khalkha formed on the basis of ancient Mongolian elements. Among the Khalkhas there are some genera of Turkic origin. Some features of everyday life and language are distinguished by a few ethnographic groups close to the Khalkha: Dariganga (27,412 people, 1.04%) living in the southeastern Dornogov (East Gobi) aimak, and hotogoyts (15,460 people, 0.59% ) The peoples of the southern groups of the Mongols — Uzumchins (2,577 people), Chakhars (132 people), Khorchins (152 people), and others — also underwent considerable assimilation on the part of the Khalkhas.

Subethnos of the Mongols-Khalkhas:

• Elzhigin (1 340 people or 0.05%)
• Darkhats (21,558 people, or 0.82%) living in the Huvsgel (Khubsugul) aimak appeared as a result of a mixture of Mongolian, Turkic, and Samoyed ethnic elements.
• Hotogoyty
• Sartuls

The western group of the Mongols - Oirats - includes Derbets living in the UVs (Ubsunur) Aymak and, together with their Hoyts and Hoshuts, account for 72,403 people or 2.75% of the country's population (2010 census), Zakhchins (mainly in the south and the center of Khovd (Kobdos) aimak), numbering 32,845 people in the country. or 1.25%, olyots (in the east of the aimak Bayan-Ulgiy (Bayan-Ulgeysky), 15 520 people or 0.59%), torguts (south-west of aimag Khovd (Kobdossky), 14 176 or 0.54%) , bayats (mainly in the UVs (Ubsunur) aimak, 56 573 people, or 2.15%), mangat (in the north of Khovd (Kobdos) aimak, 6 592 people, or 0.25%). Torguts are descendants of those Oirat tribes that in 1771 returned to Central Asia from the banks of the Volga . Altai Urikhaytsy (26,654 people or 1.01%) inhabit Khovd , Bayan-Ulgii aimaks) and are divided into several ethnic groups. These are Altai and Khubsugul Urikhaytsy.

Buryats (45 087 people, 1.71%) are mainly from Eastern Siberia , but there are also local origin. They live mainly in the northeastern aimaks of Khentiy , Dornod , Selenga , Tuva , and Bulgan . The Barguts (2,989 people or 0.11%) and Hamnigans (537 people) resettled in the aimaks of Dornod and Khentiy are close to them. The Hamnigans are the descendants of the Mongolian Evenki , who switched from reindeer herding to nomadic cattle breeding.

The Turkic population is represented in Mongolia primarily by the Kazakhs . The number of Kazakhs is 101 526 people or 3.86%, 2010 census; according to some estimates - up to 140 thousand people. or up to 5% of the total population. After the suppression of the Uyghur uprising in Xinjiang, some Kazakhs sought asylum in Mongolia to avoid the Manchu punitive operation. Kazakhs came to Mongolia from various places - some migrated in the middle of the XIX century from the southern to the northern slope of the Mongolian Altai , others came from the upper reaches of Bukhtarma and the Black Irtysh valley. Kazakhs preserve their language and culture. The majority of the population in aimak is Bayan-Ulgiy .

The Tsaatans (282 people, 2010) are Tuvan-reindeer herders, immigrants from Toji , ( Tuva ). Tuvinian monchak are close in Kazakh language. Khotons (11 304 people or 0.43%) came to Mongolia at the end of the 17th century from Xinjiang and now have already switched to the Mongolian language, living mainly in Uvs aimak, and also more absent-mindedly in Khovd , Zavkhan , and Huvsgel aimak .

Russian currently lives in Mongolia, about 1.5 thousand people. (2007). Back in the late 80s of the XX century, there were 20 thousand of them. They began to move to Mongolia in the middle of the XIX century, the first of the Russian population here were Old Believers who fled from religious persecution. There are several hundred Chinese left in Mongolia today (250 for 2007), although in the mid-60s of the 20th century the number of Chinese reached 25 thousand.

The total population of Mongolia in July 2007 was 2 952 000 people, in 2010 - 2 647 545 inhabitants. The average population density is 1.8 people per 1 km². The urban population is 65%, the capital Ulan Bator with a population of about 1 million inhabitants accounts for 1/3 of the total population of the country. The most densely populated are the Khangai mountain region and the Orkhon river valley (5-6 people / 1km²). In the south of Mongolia, in desert and semi-desert territories, which occupy up to 40% of the total area of ​​the country, the density is only 1 person per 10-15 km², significant areas here are generally deserted.

The natural increase is 28 people per 1000 per year, with a birth rate of 37 and a mortality rate of 9 people per 1000 inhabitants. From 1950 to 1983, the population of Mongolia increased 2.3 times, and from 1950 to 2007, almost 4 times.

Khalkha-Mongols settled by compact mass in the eastern, central and southern aimaks of the country. The peoples of the southern Mongolian group - the Uzumchins, Chakhars and others - wander in the southeast of Mongolia. Also related are the related halchas of Dariganga . Hotogoyts inhabit the area east of Lake Hyargas-Nuur . The Mongols of the western Oirat group — the Zakhchins, Torguts, Derbets, and others — inhabit the lands in western Mongolia, west of the lakes Ubsu-Nur and Har-Nuur . Darkhats live in the Hubsugul Aimak. Buryats inhabit northern Mongolia, the valleys of the rivers Selenga , Onon, Iro and the eastern shore of Lake Khubsugul . Related to them are the Barguts - on the banks of the Kerulen River .

Kazakhs live mainly along the upper reaches of the Kobdo River, where the aimak Bayan-Ulgiy was formed. Altai Urikhaytsy and Monch Tuvins are settled in the Mongolian Altai, from the upper Kobdo to the upper Bulgan . The Khubsugul Urikhai people reside in the Khubsugul Aimak, respectively; here, among the darhats, the tzatatans also live. Most Russians and Chinese live in cities.

The official language in Mongolia is Mongolian, although the Kazakh language is also used in teaching at schools in the Bayan-Ulhegei aimak. The modern Mongolian language, spoken by the bulk of the population of Mongolia, as well as the Mongols of China living in Inner Mongolia and some other areas, includes several dialects.

Currently, Cyrillic writing is used for writing based on the modern literary language created using the Khalkhas dialect . The Old Mongolian letter , which appeared at the beginning of the 13th century, is rarely used in Mongolia at present. The alphabet for him was taken by the Mongols from the Uyghurs , who in turn borrowed it from the Sogdians . At the beginning of the XVII century, this alphabet was partially modified.

In 1945, in Mongolia, the Mongolian language was translated into Cyrillic , which was based on the Russian alphabet with the addition of 2 more letters - Ө and Ү . An attempt to restore Old Mongolian writing (to this day used by the Mongols of neighboring China), undertaken in the early 90s of the 20th century, was unsuccessful.

In the 18th-19th centuries, the Tibetan language was widely spread in Mongolia, in which literary works, religious and scientific treatises were written, it was used and continues to be used in the religious practice of Buddhism.

53% of the country's population profess Buddhism , 3% - Islam , more than 40 thousand Christians , mainly of various Protestant movements, also live in Mongolia.

The primary, ancient religion of the Mongols was shamanism , which persisted in some mountainous regions of the country until the middle of the 20th century. However, in most of the territory of Mongolia, it was supplanted by Buddhism that came at the end of the 16th century from Tibet , mainly the Galug school. In 1921, there were 747 Buddhist monasteries in the country, in which 120 thousand lamas lived, which amounted to 2/5 of the total number of men in Mongolia. In 1937, religion was banned in Mongolia, temples and monasteries were destroyed, priests and monks were repressed. In the post-war period, the only Buddhist temple in Ulan Bator was symbolically opened. Since 1989, there has been freedom of conscience in Mongolia; a significant number of Buddhist, Muslim, and Christian religious buildings have been erected.

Kazakhs and Khotons profess Islam.

• Brooke S.I. “The population of the world. Ethnodemographic Reference ", - Moscow 1986
• "Der Fischer Weltalmanach 2007.Zahlen.Fakten.Daten."
• Potemkina I.I. “Mongolia”, - Moscow, “Thought”, 1988-142 p.