Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
gives the country a population density of nearly 410 people
per square mile (158 per square kilometer). Yet, that figure tells
only part of the story. In the fertile, low-lying Terai region and
Kathmandu Valley, several thousand people can be crammed
into each square mile of area. In fact, population pressure is
a huge problem in the Terai belt, which is home to more than
half of all Nepalese. About 70 percent of the land, however, is
owned by landlords, who receive much of the area's agricul-
tural production in the form of rent. As a result, landlessness
is widespread and creates a huge socioeconomic problem in
the country. In the mountains, on the other hand, hundreds of
square miles may be home to no one. In 2007, the population
was growing at an annual rate of about 2.1 percent, a full per-
cent higher than the world's average rate of increase.
Much of the demographic (statistical) data clearly point
to Nepal's status as a less-developed country (LDC). Nearly
84 percent of its people, for example, live in the countryside,
where they are dependent upon subsistence agriculture for
their survival. Only about 16 percent of all Nepalese are urban,
and most of those live in Kathmandu, which is home to more
than one million people. By comparison, worldwide, rural and
urban populations are almost equally divided; in the developed
world, about 75 percent of the population is urban. Slightly
more than half (54 percent) of the Nepalese population is
literateﾭable to read and writeﾭwhich is very low by world
standards. Additionally, life expectancy at birth is a relatively
short 60.56 yearsﾭagain, very low by world standards. Clearly,
Nepal has a long way to go in improving the quality of life for
its people.
Statistics show that more than 30 percent of the popula-
tion is living below the poverty line. As a result, thousands of
young people have emigrated to India and various countries
in Southeast Asia and the Middle East in search of employ-
ment. During the past decade, the country has experienced an
unusually high rate of internal population displacement and
