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NEPAL
 The
Kingdom of Nepal borders with Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north
and with India in all other three sides. The country has an extreme
topography and climate. The altitude ranges from 70 meters to 8848 meters
and climate varies from Tropical to Polar in a very short distance of about
120 miles—average distance between Southern and Northern boarders. The
country stretches east-west with average length of 553 miles. Nepal is a
land-locked country located more than 1000 km from Calcutta, India, its most
important port.
Nepal’s population in terms of race and language can be divided into two
main groups: the Aryans, an Indo-European speaking group, and the Mongolian
Tibetan-Burmese speaking ethnic groups. Nepali, a language originating from
Sanskrit, is the mother tongue of about 50% of the population. The remainder
speaks other languages such as Maithili, Bhojpuri, Tharu, Tamang, etc. The
majority of the population is Hindu (80.62%), the state religion until 2008.
The other denominations include Buddhists (10.74%), Muslims (4.2%) and
Christians (0.45%).
Nepal’s population is estimated at approximately 26.4 million (2007) with an
annual growth rate of about 2.25% (based on 2001 census). About 40% of the
population is under the age of 15 years. Even with a declining population
growth rate, it is estimated that Nepal’s population will reach 30 million
by the year 2010.
Nepal is one of the groups of countries classified by the UN as least
developed. With a GDP per inhabitant of US $383 (estimated for the year
2006/07), Nepal is one of the world’s poorest countries. No clear
documentation on absolute poverty in Nepal is available and figures vary,
depending on calculation methodology, from 40-71% of the population.
Social development remains at a very low level. Infant mortality is 48 per
1000 live births (2007) and average life expectancy is 63.3 years of age for
men and 64.1 years of age for women. Only 54.1% of the population can read
and write--65.5% of men and 42.8% of women (2001 census).
In the health sector there were only 89 hospitals with 6796 beds in the
fiscal year 2005-06. In the same year there were 1,259 doctors working in
the government hospitals together with 11,637 nurses and 7,491 health
assistants.
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