Armenia is a primarily Oriental Orthodox country. Armenia is considered the first nation to adopt Christianity, tracing its church's roots back to the 3rd and 4th centuries. The country formally adopted the Christian faith in 301 A.D. Over 90% of Armenians belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church, a form of Oriental (Non-Chalcedonian) Orthodoxy, which is a very ritualistic, conservative church, roughly comparable to the Coptic and Syrian churches. Armenia also has a population of evangelical Protestants and Catholics. The Yazidi Kurds, who live in the western part of the country, practice Zoroastrianism or Shamanism. Any ethnic Azeris living in the country practice Islam, but most fled to Azerbaijan during the Karabagh War. Conversely, Armenia received a large influx of Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan, where there were numerous pogroms against Armenians.

Whether Armenians are Europeans or not is a bone of contention, as the people of Caucasia have become increasingly disregarded as being Europeans over the past couple of centuries. This process was arguably accelerating as the term "European" increasingly is being used to refer to citizens of the European Union rather than peoples of ethnic European origins, but the recent (2004) inclusion of Armenia in the EU "New Neighborhood", which is expected to lead to membership in the long term will once again swing the pendulum in the direction of Europe.

Population: 3,344,336 (July 2000 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 24% (male 415,297; female 400,590)
15-64 years: 66% (male 1,084,588; female 1,131,387)
65 years and over: 10% (male 129,890; female 182,584) (2000 est.)

Population growth rate: -0.28% (2000 est.)

Birth rate: 10.97 births/1,000 population (2000 est.)

Death rate: 9.53 deaths/1,000 population (2000 est.)

Net migration rate: -4.23 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2000 est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.96 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.71 male(s)/female
total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2000 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 41.48 deaths/1,000 live births (2000 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 66.4 years
male: 61.98 years
female: 71.04 years (2000 est.)

Total fertility rate: 1.47 children born/woman (2000 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Armenian(s)
adjective: Armenian

Ethnic groups: Armenians 93%, Azeris 3%, Russians 2%, other (mostly Yazidi Kurds) 2% (1989)
note: as of the end of 1993, virtually all Azeris had emigrated from Armenia

Religions: Armenian Orthodox 94%

Languages: Armenian 96%, Russian 2%, other 2%

Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99%
male: 99%
female: 98% (1989 est.)

Reference

Much of the material in this article comes from the CIA World Factbook 2000.

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