Ethnic composition and demographics
According to the latest estimates, there will be around 3,700,000 inhabitants in Georgia in 2024. 61% of the population would be urban, with a third living in Tbilisi.
The majority group is 87.8% Georgian, with the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities each accounting for around 5%, the latter being slightly larger than the former. There are also very small minorities (less than 1%) of the following populations: Mingrelians, Greeks, Ossetians, Yezidis, Svans, Kists (Chechens), Belarusians, Assyrians, Kurds, Judeo-Georgians, Dagestanians (Avars and Lezgians), Germans, Ukrainians, Tatars, Kists and Roma.
For the two separatist regions, it is estimated that there are approximately 51,000 inhabitants living in South Ossetia and 241,000 in Abkhazia (a very uncertain figure).
A real demographic crisis
Since 1991, when Georgia finally regained its independence, its demographic growth rate has begun to decline. In twenty years, the country has lost a tenth of its population. Georgia is subject to massive emigration and a sharp drop in the birth rate. The country has therefore fallen below the critical threshold for population renewal. After independence in 1991, living conditions in Georgia had deteriorated significantly. After the implosion of the USSR, Georgia had lost 70% of its GDP, and was among the poorest of the former Soviet bloc satellite countries.
Roots that you don't forget
In Georgia, regional identities are so strong that they impose themselves even within the paternal family tree. If a family of Imeretian or Kakhetian origin has been living in Tbilisi for three generations, they will never forget to mention their origins. The east and west of the country have their own specificities in terms of the characters of their inhabitants - and clichés are still very much the order of the day, if not exacerbated. As a result, Georgians emphasize the main characteristics of people living in the east and west of the country.
On the immortality and absurdity of clichés
In the West, Imeretians are supposed to be talkative, joking, extroverted, excessively well-mannered, bordering on hypocritical. Gourians are said to be intelligent, fast and active.
In the East, Kakhetians are reputed to be sober and proud, hot-blooded and festive - through wine and supra. Kartlians are supposed to be rough and tough, the inhabitants of the Kazbegi region are, in the eyes of the rest of the country, rugged mountain people, while the Touches de Touchétie are shepherds of the great transhumance.
Indelible labels are applied to minorities. But no stereotypes are applied to the inhabitants of Tbilisi or Mtskheta. Like Paris, almost everyone comes from somewhere else. In the 19th century, Georgia experienced a major rural exodus to Tbilisi. As a result, the clichés held by the capital's residents about the locals are exacerbated, and vice versa. As everywhere else in the world, labels are always hard to peel off. But the main victims of stereotyping are minorities, who already have a hard life, and against whom stereotypes are relentless, even though they have all contributed to the cultural richness of this country.
From all over the world, they had a rendezvous in Georgia
Throughout its history, Georgia has been a truly multi-ethnic mosaic. Until the advent of the nation-state in the 19th century, collective identities were above all social and religious. Over the centuries, the Caucasus region has experienced a particularly turbulent history. It has shaped a territory characterized by a highly heterogeneous population. From the end of the 19th century, Georgia sought to build a nationalist state against the Tsarist Empire and then the Soviet bloc. In the early 20th century, nationalist movements gave rise to national and territorial identities. Georgian identity was born with the country's independence between 1918 and 1921. In Georgia, history and nationalism could not be more different! During the Soviet period, Stalin's policy on minorities, based on ethnic markers, created spaces where minorities identified more with their ethnic group than with their region. Armenians, for example, were driven to Yerevan, Azeris to Baku and Georgians to Tbilisi. What's more, members of these minorities were encouraged to speak their mother tongue first, with Georgian taught only as a second language. This does not make integration any easier for some people today, who neither speak nor understand Georgian.
Distribution of ethnic minorities
Armenians make up around 5% of the population. They are concentrated in the south of the country, in the Samtskhe-Djavakhetia region bordering Armenia, as well as in Russian-controlled Abkhazia in the north. Tbilisi was home to a majority Armenian community in the 19th century. The city retains many vestiges of its Armenian past. By 2020, following a turbulent history and subsequent exile, the Armenian community had dwindled to just 7% of the population. Armenians have always had a strong presence throughout the country. Over the centuries, they occupied a more or less important place in the kingdom, holding military or administrative posts, and working as farmers, winegrowers and merchants. Famous capitalists loaned money to the kingdom. The Armenian community long concentrated the country's economic life.
Armenians living in the southern region are descendants of emigrants forced to flee during the Russo-Turkish wars of the 19th century. Others came to Georgia before the First World War. Today, isolated by a mountain range, this community has few economic or social exchanges with the authorities in Tbilisi, or with the rest of the country. Many non-Georgian-speaking Armenians find themselves in a state of widespread poverty. In 2008, only 8% of Armenians spoke Georgian.
Azeris are concentrated in Kartli and Kakhetia (6.6% of the population), on the border with Armenia and Azerbaijan. They are Shiite Muslims. 45% of the population of the Kvémo-Kartli provinces is also Azeri, speaking Azeri - a language similar to Turkish - and very little Georgian (only 7% of the population speaks it fluently). The community is essentially rural in this predominantly agricultural region, supplying Tbilisi with potatoes and vegetables. This isolated, inward-looking community is poorly integrated with the rest of Georgia.
These two minorities are ignorant of the official language, and have no access to adequate information in the media or to Georgian language teaching. As a result, they are unable to find employment or participate in social activities. This problem is far more acute in these two communities, the largest in the country, than in other minorities.
Russians now form a very small community, concentrated in Tbilisi and the major urban centers. By 2002, over 80% of them had left Georgia. Those who remain don't speak Georgian. This is a real integration problem for them, and one that is not going to go away. Russian, once the country's lingua franca, is gradually disappearing. Young Georgians under 25 no longer speak it.
The Kurdish Yezidi community lives mainly in Tbilisi, Roustavi and Batumi. Although they are socially integrated, they have a low level of education and therefore difficult access to employment.
Very isolated minorities
In 1991, the slogan chanted by Georgians at independence, "Georgia for Georgians", to rid themselves of Soviet influence, largely undermined its minorities. During the Soviet era, minority languages were privileged, and Georgian was taught as a second language. As a result, after independence, their communication was limited, resulting in minimal representation and difficult access to official positions in the administration or government.
Most minorities speak Russian as a second language, not Georgian, which does not facilitate their integration. This language barrier is compounded by a lack of educational infrastructure and communication. Armenians, Belarusians, Ukrainians and Azeris all suffer from this isolation. English, however, is favored by the younger generation.
While the Georgian government has made enormous efforts to integrate its minorities, success has been elusive. There is a huge gap between Georgian society and the highly marginalized minorities, who still prefer their mother tongue. The Armenians of Samtskhe-Djavakhetia dream of autonomy and of their region becoming part of Armenia. Other minorities want to return to their homeland rather than integrate as full citizens in Georgia. The country remains divided into clans, minorities and political parties..
The catastrophic economic situation has prompted a large number of minorities and Georgians to look to broader horizons, taking the path of exile.
