Prime Minister: Nambaryn Enkhbayar (2000)

Area: 604,247 sq mi (1,565,000 sq km)

Population (2003 est.): 2,712,315 (growth rate: 1.4%); birth rate: 21.4/1000; infant mortality rate: 57.2/1000; density per sq mi: 4

Capital and largest city(1993 est.):

Ulaan Baatar, 619,000

Monetary unit: Tugrik

Languages: Mongolian, 90%; also Turkic, Russian, and Chinese

Ethnicity/race: Mongol 90%, Kazak 4%, Chinese 2%, Russian 2%, other 2%

Religions: predominantly Tibetan Buddhist; Islam about 4%

Literacy rate: 97% (1989)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2001 est.): $4.7 billion; per capita $1,770. Real growth rate: 2.4%. Inflation: 11.8% (2000 est.). Unemployment: 20% (2000). Arable land: 0.84%. Agriculture: wheat, barley, potatoes, forage crops; sheep, goats, cattle, camels, horses. Labor force: 1.4 million (2000); primarily herding/agricultural. Industries: construction materials, mining (coal, copper, molybdenum, fluorspar, and gold); oil; food and beverages, processing of animal products. Natural resources: oil, coal, copper, molybdenum, tungsten, phosphates, tin, nickel, zinc, wolfram, fluorspar, gold, silver, iron, phosphate. Exports: $466.1 million (f.o.b., 2000): copper, livestock, animal products, cashmere, wool, hides, fluorspar, other nonferrous metals. Imports: $614.5 million (c.i.f., 2000): machinery and equipment, fuels, food products, industrial consumer goods, chemicals, building materials, sugar, tea. Major trading partners: China, U.S., Russia, Japan, South Korea.

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 104,100 (1999); mobile cellular: 110,000 (2001). Radio broadcast stations: AM 7, FM 9, shortwave 4 (2001). Radios: 155,900 (1999). Television broadcast stations: 4 (plus 18 provincial repeaters and many low powered repeaters) (1999). Televisions: 168,800 (1999). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 5 (2001). Internet users: 30,000 (2001).

Transportation: Railways: total: 1,815 km (2001). Highways: total: 3,387 km; paved: 1,563 km; unpaved: 1,824 km; note: there are also 45,862 km of rural roads that consist of rough, unimproved, cross-country tracks (2000). Ports and harbors: none. Airports: 34 (2001).

International disputes: none.