Demographic Crisis in the Mountainous Adjara: Challenges and the Solutions

Due to political and social-economic processes in independent Georgia, there are serious issues observed in the demographic development of the country, especially in mountainous regions, where the demographic crisis is obviously shaped. Similar problems are observed in mountainous Adjara, the population of which decreased from 85.1 thousand to 58.9 thousand (or by 31.8%) during the 1989-2023 years. Therefore, a population decrease in the region with high reproduction up to recent years would negatively affect the demographic policy of the country. Coming out of this, the topic is quite urgent and needs the evaluation of existing problems and the setting of ways to improve the demographics. Via application of traditional and contemporary (modern) research methods, there were assessed the spatial originalities of quantitative indicators of natural and mechanical movement of population of mountainous Adjara, including those forced to displace – the ecomigrants. The results of qualitative properties of demographic development were found out, and the main reasons causing the crisis were determined. There are analyses of the challenges (related to sustainable development of the region) due to the decrease of the population of mountainous Adjara, and there are solutions set for the demographic crisis.