Mongolia is one of the poorest countries in the world. Due to lack of resources such as food, and clean water, people living in Mongolia are only expected to live to 60 years of age. In other parts of the world with more money and resources like America or Canada live 80+ years.
Because of the terrain in Mongolia, it is inconvenient to grow crops. Most of Mongolia is desert terrain, and the rest is mountain steppes. This makes it inconvenient for farmers to grow plants because of a dry environment, or hills that have to be flattened to make room to grow crops on hillsides. In Mongolia, less than 1% of land is used for growing crops making it obvious that Mongolia has to buy it’s food from other countries making it cost more from the stores. This makes it even harder for poor people in Mongolia to get food to eat. Because of non strict environmental laws, power plants burning coal pollute the air in Mongolia, making many people sick. Lack of fresh water is another problem poverty has caused in Mongolia. Because Mongolia is poor, the country cannot afford to build water filtering plants, causing most of the water in Mongolia to be polluted. Another problem with getting food is that almost 50% of the people living in Mongolia are Buddhist, limiting the choices of foods to eat. What has mainly caused poverty in Mongolia is it’s debt with other countries. In 2003, Mongolia had to pay Russia $11 billion for a debt, causing taxes to raise very high which people could not afford, leaving many homeless.