Russia Vs. Bhutan
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Living in the United States we tend to take many things for granted. We also have the tendency to think that others should assimilate towards our viewpoints and lifestyle. I know this to be true because I did it while researching this essay, as did others that I spoke to about the data I gathered. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast two countries, one industrialized and the other non-industrialized. And hopefully give the reader a chance to imagine life elsewhere, without forming negative opinions or wandering what we can do to help.
The first country we will look at is Russia. This country we will call our industrialized nation. Before we get into the thick of the data it is important for the reader to understand that even though this country is considered an established nation, it is actually relatively new. The fall of the Soviet Union also known as the USSR in 1991 was a result of years of the “Cold War” with the USA, a struggling economy, and the realization by its people that the Communist controls of its political and economic system were faltered. This brought about the formation of what we now know as Russia, 15 independent republics that are now using democracy and capitalism as its basis. It is important to know that for the facts you are about to read are amazing for a nation that was originally founded in the 12th century.(The USA was founded in the 18th century) The country itself is about 2 times the size of the USA, with only 27% living in rural areas. (This can be easily understood by looking at the geographics of the nation, and the climate of certain areas.) It is populated by approximately 143,400,000 people with an age structure of 0-14 14.6%, 15-64: 71.3%, >65 14.2%. The projected population for the year 2015 is 133.3 million based on the current growth rate of .37%, the projected growth of -11.57%, and of course factoring in the current death rate of 14.52 per 1000. The median age of the population is 38.15 years, with a life expectancy of 67.1 years total. However, the life expectancy is greatly different among the sexes, with women outliving men by almost 14 years on average. (Men -60.55 years females 74.04 years) The birth rate is only 9.8 per 1000, most likely due to the fact that 67.3% of women of child bearing years are using contraception. The HIV/AIDS rate is low at 1.1%, and can be correlated to the high percentage of contraceptive use, and relatively low use of IV drugs. The divorce rate is a staggering 3.37 per 1000. The literacy rate is impressive at 99.4%, and the GDP per capita is $9800.00.
Now lets look at our non-industrialized nation of Bhutan. Now this is truly a new nation, only being formed in its current state in 1947 and originally founded in 1865. The geography of Bhutan is between China and India, and it is only a total of 47,000 square km, or about half the size of Indiana. The total population is approximately 2.23 million people (some estimates as low as 800,000) with an age structure made up of 0-14 years 39.1%, 15-64years 56.9% and >65 years 4%. Of course considering the size of the nation, and the geography it is not a surprise to see that 91% of the population is living in rural areas. The birth rate is 34.03 per 1000 people, and a death rate of 12.94 per 1000. The projected population in 2015 is 3.1 million based on the current growth of 2.11%, and projected growth rate of a staggering 127%. This can be attributed to the low rate of women using any form of contraceptive at just 19%. However, even though the use of contraceptives is low, this does not correlate into a high rate