| Turkmenistan |
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| Background: Annexed by Russia between 1865 and 1885, Turkmenistan became a Soviet republic in 1924. It achieved independence upon the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. Extensive hydrocarbon/natural gas reserves could prove a boon to this underdeveloped country if extraction and delivery projects were to be expanded. The Turkmenistan Government is actively seeking to develop alternative petroleum transportation routes to break Russia's pipeline monopoly. President for Life Saparmurat NIYAZOV died in December 2006, and Turkmenistan held its first multi-candidate presidential electoral process in February 2007. Gurbanguly BERDIMUHAMMEDOV, a former NIYAZOV aide, emerged as the country's new president. |
| Geography and Environmental |
Capital: name: Ashgabat (Ashkhabad)
geographic coordinates: 37 57 N, 58 23 E
time difference: UTC+5 (10 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time) |
| Area Total: 488,100 sq km |
| Area Land: 488,100 sq km |
| Area Water: NEGL |
| Area Comparative: slightly larger than California |
| Coastline: 0 km; note - Turkmenistan borders the Caspian Sea (1,768 km) |
| Climate: subtropical desert |
| Terrain: flat-to-rolling sandy desert with dunes rising to mountains in the south; low mountains along border with Iran; borders Caspian Sea in west |
| Elevation Extremes Lowest Point: Vpadina Akchanaya -81 m; note - Sarygamysh Koli is a lake in northern Turkmenistan with a water level that fluctuates above and below the elevation of Vpadina Akchanaya (the lake has dropped as low as -110 m) |
| Elevation Extremes Highest Point: Gora Ayribaba 3,139 m |
| Natural Resources: petroleum, natural gas, sulfur, salt |
| Land Use Arable Land: 4.51% |
| Land Use Permanent Crops: 0.14% |
| Land Use Other: 95.35% (2005) |
| Irrigated Land: 18,000 sq km (2003) |
| Natural Hazards: NA |
| Environment Current Issues: contamination of soil and groundwater with agricultural chemicals, pesticides; salination, water logging of soil due to poor irrigation methods; Caspian Sea pollution; diversion of a large share of the flow of the Amu Darya into irrigation contributes to that river's inability to replenish the Aral Sea; desertification |
| Geography Note: landlocked; the western and central low-lying desolate portions of the country make up the great Garagum (Kara-Kum) desert, which occupies over 80% of the country; eastern part is plateau |
| Population |
| Population: 5,097,028 (July 2007 est.) |
| Age Structure 0 to 14 Years: 34.7% (male 900,718/female 866,930) |
| Age Structure 15 to 64 Years: 60.9% (male 1,537,638/female 1,567,049) |
| Age Structure 65 Years And Over: 4.4% (male 97,454/female 127,239) (2007 est.) |
| Median Age Total: 22.3 years |
| Median Age Male: 21.7 years |
| Median Age Female: 22.9 years (2007 est.) |
| Population Growth Rate: 1.617% (2007 est.) |
| Birth Rate: 25.36 births/1,000 population (2007 est.) |
| Death Rate: 6.17 deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.) |
| Sex Ratio At Birth: 1.05 male(s)/female |
| Sex Ratio Under 15 Years: 1.039 male(s)/female |
| Sex Ratio 15 to 64 Years: 0.981 male(s)/female |
| Sex Ratio 65 Years And Over: 0.766 male(s)/female |
| Sex Ratio Total Population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2007 est.) |
| Infant Mortality Rate Total: 53.49 deaths/1,000 live births |
| Infant Mortality Rate Male: 57.84 deaths/1,000 live births |
| Infant Mortality Rate Female: 48.91 deaths/1,000 live births (2007 est.) |
| Life Expectancy At BirthTotalPopulation: 68.3 years |
| Life Expectancy At Birth Male: 65.23 years |
| Life Expectancy At Birth Female: 71.54 years (2007 est.) |
| Total Fertility Rate: 3.13 children born/woman (2007 est.) |
| HIV AIDS Adult Prevalence Rate: less than 0.1% (2004 est.) |
| HIV AIDS People Living With HIV AIDS: less than 200 (2003 est.) |
| HIV AIDS Deaths: less than 100 (2004 est.) |
| Religions: Muslim 89%, Eastern Orthodox 9%, unknown 2% |
| Languages: Turkmen 72%, Russian 12%, Uzbek 9%, other 7% |
| Literacy Definition: age 15 and over can read and write |
| Literacy Total Population: 98.8% |
| Literacy Male: 99.3% |
| Literacy Female: 98.3% (1999 est.) |
Administrative Divisions: 5 provinces (welayatlar, singular - welayat) and 1 independent city*: Ahal Welayaty (Anew), Ashgabat*, Balkan Welayaty (Balkanabat), Dashoguz Welayaty, Lebap Welayaty (Turkmenabat), Mary Welayaty
note: administrative divisions have the same names as their administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center name following in parentheses) |
| Legal System: based on civil law system |
| Economy |
| Overview: Turkmenistan is a largely desert country with intensive agriculture in irrigated oases and large gas and oil resources. One-half of its irrigated land is planted in cotton; formerly it was the world's 10th-largest producer. Poor harvests in recent years have led to an almost 50% decline in cotton exports. With an authoritarian ex-Communist regime in power and a tribally based social structure, Turkmenistan has taken a cautious approach to economic reform, hoping to use gas and cotton sales to sustain its inefficient economy. Privatization goals remain limited. From 1998-2005, Turkmenistan suffered from the continued lack of adequate export routes for natural gas and from obligations on extensive short-term external debt. At the same time, however, total exports rose by an average of 15% per year from 2003-06, largely because of higher international oil and gas prices. In 2006, Ashgabat raised its natural gas export prices to its main customer, Russia, from $66 per thousand cubic meters (tcm) to $100 per tcm. Overall prospects in the near future are discouraging because of widespread internal poverty, a poor educational system, government misuse of oil and gas revenues, and Ashgabat's unwillingness to adopt market-oriented reforms. Turkmenistan's economic statistics are state secrets, and GDP and other figures are subject to wide margins of error. In particular, the rate of GDP growth is uncertain. President BERDYMUKHAMMEDOV's election platform included plans to build a gas line to China, to complete the AmuDarya railroad bridge in Lebap province, and to create special border trade zones in southern Balkan province - a hint that the new post-NIYAZOV government will work to create a friendlier foreign investment environment. |
| GDP Purchasing Power Parity: $45.11 billion (2006 est.) |
GDP Real Growth Rate: IMF estimate: 13%
note: official government statistics show 21.4% growth, but these estimates are widely regarded as unreliable (2006 est.) |
| GDP Composition By Sector Agriculture: 24.4% |
| GDP Composition By Sector Industry: 33.9% |
| GDP Composition By Sector Services: 41.7% (2006 est.) |
| Labor Force: 2.32 million (2003 est.) |
Labor Force By Occupation: agriculture: 48.2%
industry: 13.8%
services: 37% (2003 est.) |
| Unemployment Rate: 60% (2004 est.) |
Household Income Or Consumption By Percentage Share: lowest 10%: 2.6%
highest 10%: 31.7% (1998) |
| Inflation Rate Consumer Prices: 11% (2006 est.) |
| Industries: natural gas, oil, petroleum products, textiles, food processing |
| Industrial Production Growth Rate: 22% (2003 est.) |
| Energy |
| Electricity Production: 10.79 billion kWh (2004 est.) |
| Electricity Production By Source Fossil Fuel: 99.9% |
| Electricity Production By Source Hydro: 0.1% |
| Electricity Production By Source Nuclear: 0% |
| Electricity Production By Source Other: 0% (2001) |
| Electricity Consumption: 9.03 billion kWh (2004) |
| Electricity Exports: 1 billion kWh (2004) |
| Electricity Imports: 0 kWh (2004) |
| Oil Production: 213,700 bbl/day (2004 est.) |
| Oil Consumption: 95,000 bbl/day (2004 est.) |
| Oil Proved Reserves: 546 million bbl (2005 est.) |
| Natural Gas Production: 58.57 billion cu m (2004 est.) |
| Natural Gas Consumption: 16.57 billion cu m (2004 est.) |
| Natural Gas Exports: 42 billion cu m (2004 est.) |
| Natural Gas Imports: 0 cu m (2004 est.) |
| Natural Gas Proved Reserves: 2.01 trillion cu m (1 January 2005 est.) |
| Exports: $5.421 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.) |
| Exports Commodities: gas, crude oil, petrochemicals, cotton fiber, textiles |
| Exports Partners: Ukraine 42.8%, Iran 14.8%, Hungary 5.3% (2005) |
| Imports: $3.936 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.) |
| Imports Commodities: machinery and equipment, chemicals, foodstuffs |
| Imports Partners: UAE 12.7%, Azerbaijan 11.1%, US 9.6%, Russia 9.1%, Ukraine 7.6%, Turkey 7.3%, Iran 6.2%, Germany 5.4% (2005) |
| Debt External: $2.4 billion to $5 billion (2001 est.) |
| Economic Aid Recipient: $16 million from the US (2001) |
| Communications |
| Telephones Main Lines In Use: 495,000 (2006) |
| TelephonesMobileCellular: 52,000 (2004) |
| Telephone System General Assessment: poorly developed |
| Telephone System Domestic: Turkmenistan's telecommunications network remains woefully underdeveloped; Turkmentelekom, in cooperation with foreign investors, is planning to upgrade the country's telephone exchanges and install a new digital switching system |
| Telephone System International: country code - 993; linked by cable and microwave radio relay to other CIS republics and to other countries by leased connections to the Moscow international gateway switch; a new telephone link from Ashgabat to Iran has been established; a new exchange in Ashgabat switches international traffic through Turkey via Intelsat; satellite earth stations - 1 Orbita and 1 Intelsat |
| Radio Broadcast Stations: AM 16, FM 8, shortwave 2 (1998) |
| Radios: 1.225 million (1997) |
| Television Broadcast Stations: 4 (government-owned and programmed) (2004) |
| Televisions: 820,000 (1997) |
| Internet Service Providers-ISPs: 1 |
| Internet Users: 36,000 (2005) |
| Transportation |
| Railways Total: 2,440 km |
| Railways Broad Gauge: 2,440 km 1.520-m gauge (2005) |
| Waterways: 1,300 km (Amu Darya and Kara Kum canal important inland waterways) (2006) |
| Airports: 29 (2006) |
| Military Expenditures Percent Of GDP: 3.4% (2005 est.) |
| Disputes International: cotton monoculture in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan creates water-sharing difficulties for Amu Darya river states; field demarcation of the boundaries with Kazakhstan commenced in 2005, but Caspian seabed delimitation remains stalled with Azerbaijan, Iran, and Kazakhstan due to Turkmenistan's indecision over how to allocate the sea's waters and seabed |
| Refugees And Internally Displaced Persons: refugees (country of origin): 11,173 (Tajikistan) (2006) |
| IllicitDrugs: transit country for Afghan narcotics bound for Russian and Western European markets; transit point for heroin precursor chemicals bound for Afghanistan |