| This study compiles and analyzes the available data to estimate Mongolia's population size and distribution throughout the twentieth century. An understanding of Mongolian demographics is useful for interpreting Mongolia's society, economics, and politics, because population characteristics and evolution are intertwined with the social, economic, and political organization and progression of a country. Too often, the lack of fundamental knowledge of Mongolia, including population statistics, has led to misunderstandings and misinterpretations of modern Mongolian society, economics, and politics.;Rapid urbanization, a by-product of Mongolia's drive for industrial development and the result of centralized wage control favoring urban jobs over rural jobs, is the dominant population manifestation. Mongolia now classifies over 57% of the population as urban, but this is, in part, because the definition of urban is broadly applied. Only the capital, Ulaanbaatar, has a population of over 100,000, and just one other city has a core population over 50,000. Nevertheless, the economic cost of all the major cities can no longer be supported by socialism, and already some Mongols have left the cities in order to meet their basic needs. If the change to a free-market economy is slow in coming--or fails--Mongolia's urban population will be threatened and the infrastructures of its cities will begin to crumble. |
