Not to be confused with the US state of Georgia.

Georgia (Georgian: საქართველო, Sakartvelo) is a country in the Caucasus, on the border of Europe and Asia. The country is located on the northwest side of the Caucasus, on the Black Sea and has 3.7 million inhabitants. The country is almost twice the size of the Netherlands and the capital is Tbilisi.

Geography

According to ABBREVIATIONFINDER, Georgia is located on the Black Sea in the Caucasus. The country borders Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey. Georgia includes two apostate republics; Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The country consists of a large central valley, with the Greater Caucasus in the north and the Lesser Caucasus in the south. The 5,201 meter high Shkhara is the highest point in Georgia. Much of the border area between Georgia and Russia consists of inaccessible high mountains with peaks between 3,500 and 5,000 meters. The Lesser Caucasus in the south has peaks up to approximately 3,000 meters. The central south consists of a plateau at 1,700 to 2,000 meters altitude, one of the largest of this type in the Caucasus.

Georgia is drained by two major rivers, the Rioni in the west and the Kura in the east. Much of Georgia drains into the Black Sea, but the east drains through the Kura to the Caspian Sea. The watershed is an approximately 900 meter high mountain pass near Kashuri.

The country has different climatic zones. It has subtropical characteristics in the west and continental characteristics in the east, with a more alpine climate in the north in particular, but also in the south. The mountains in the north are covered with snow all year round. The coastal region around Batumi is subtropical, where palm trees grow. The southeast is much drier, with a steppe climate. The average maximum temperature in Tbilisi ranges from 7°C in winter to 31°C in summer. In Batumi this is between 10°C and 26°C. In Batumi there is 2400 mm of rainfall per year, in Tbilisi only 500 mm.

Demographics

Georgia’s population grew from 3.5 million in 1950 to 5.5 million in 1990, as part of the Soviet Union. See Georgia population density. After that, Abkhazia and South Ossetia seceded, the population of the remaining part of Georgia then declined, typical of many ex-Soviet countries. The population shrank from 4.8 million in 1993 to 3.8 million in 2010.

By far the largest city is the capital Tbilisi, which has approximately 1.1 million inhabitants, just under a third of the total population. Batumi, Kutaisi and Rustavi are the three other larger cities with between 120,000 and 200,000 inhabitants. The other cities are smaller than 50,000 inhabitants.

In the 1989 census, Georgians made up 71% of the population, followed by Armenians (8%), Azeris (6%) and Russians (6%). Smaller groups formed Ossetians, Abkhazians, Ukrainians and Greeks. The 2014 census did not register residents of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, so the proportion of Georgians was much higher at 87%, followed by Azeris (6%) and Armenians (5%).

Georgian is spoken in Georgia, a language that has no direct relatives in the major language groups in the region. Georgian has its own alphabet, which has no direct relatives, although the alphabetical order is similar to the Greek alphabet.

Economy

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Georgia has introduced a market economy. However, the collapse of the Soviet market and conflicts with South Ossetia and Abkhazia caused an economic collapse, the economy shrank by 75% between 1989 and 1994. At the beginning of the 21st century, the economy of the country started to recover, in 2007 Georgia was one of the fastest growing economies in Eastern Europe. However, the country has to deal with relatively high unemployment and a relatively low level of prosperity. The GDP per capita is somewhat higher than Armenia, but lower than Azerbaijan and Russia. The average monthly salary in 2021 amounted to 1,357 lari, converted almost € 500. Poverty has decreased considerably, from 54% in 2001 to 37% in 2010 and 17.5% in 2021. Georgia’s main exports are mining products and oil. Agricultural products play a smaller role. Tourism is increasing in importance, but the country still attracts few tourists from outside the immediate region.

History

The country of Georgia originated in ancient times as a series of kingdoms, reaching its golden age in the mid to late Middle Ages with the Kingdom of Georgia in the 11th and 12th centuries, it then covered almost the entire Caucasus from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea. The kingdom then fell apart under the influence of great powers such as the Ottomans, Mongols and Iranian dynasties. In the late 18th century, Georgia sought an alliance with the Russian Empire and was annexed to this end in 1801. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, it briefly became an independent country, the Democratic Republic of Georgia which existed between 1918 and 1921 and also included parts of present-day northeastern Turkey. It was then annexed as part of the Soviet Union. During World War II, approximately 700,000 Georgians fought on the side of the Russians against the Germans. The Soviet leader Stalin came from Georgia. On April 9, 1991, Georgia declared its independence from the Soviet Union. Later that year, the Georgian Civil War broke out, after which South Ossetia and Abkhazia seceded. After the Rose Revolution of 2003, Georgia followed a clearly pro-European course, but relations with Russia deteriorated, leading to a brief war with Russia in 2008.