Mauritania and Kazakhstan Comparison - Examine Similarities and Differences

Country
Mauritania	Kazakhstan
Leader
President: Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz	President: Nursultan Nazarbayev
Population
3,359,185	17,522,010
Life Expectancy
61.530 years	69.630 years
Capital City
Nouakchott	Astana
Largest city
Nouakchott (population: 661,400)	Almaty (population: 2,000,900)
Human Development Index
0.557	0.807
GDP per capita
$2,200 US	$13,200 US
Literacy Rate
51.2%	99.5%
Corruption Perception Index
2.8	2.2
Percentage of Women in Parliament
19.9%	12.3%
Wealthiest Citizens
NA	Alijan Ibragimov ($1.2bn US)
Unemployment Rate
30.000%	5.400%
Death Penalty
Abolished in practice	NA

Political System
military junta	republic; authoritarian presidential rule, with little power outside the executive branch
Independence date
28 November 1960 (from France)	16 December 1991 (from Soviet Union)
Religions
Muslim 100%	Muslim 47%, Russian Orthodox 44%, Protestant 2%, other 7%
Languages
Arabic (official and national), Pulaar, Soninke, Wolof (all national languages), French, Hassaniya	Kazakh (Qazaq, state language) 64.4%, Russian (official, used in everyday business, designated the "language of interethnic communication") 95% (2001 est.)
Exports
iron ore, fish and fish products, gold, copper, petroleum	oil and oil products 59%, ferrous metals 19%, chemicals 5%, machinery 3%, grain, wool, meat, coal (2001)
External Debt
$2,816,000,000 $	$122,900,000,000 US
Exchange Rate
ouguiyas (MRO) per US dollar - NA (2007), 271.3 (2006), 267.04 (2005), 265.8 (2004), 263.03 (2003)	tenge (KZT) per US dollar - 120.25 (2008 est.), 122.55 (2007), 126.09 (2006), 132.88 (2005), 136.04 (2004)
Military Budget as percentage of GDP
5.500%	1.100%
Beijing Olympics Medal Count
0	13
Location
Northern Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Senegal and Western Sahara	Central Asia, northwest of China; a small portion west of the Ural River in eastern-most Europe
Area
1,030,700 km sq	2,724,900 km sq
Coastline
754 km	0 km
Climate
desert; constantly hot, dry, dusty	continental, cold winters and hot summers, arid and semiarid

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Mauritania vs Kazakhstan