There are more sheep than people in Mongolia. The population of Mongolia numbers less than 3 million, making it one of the lowest densely populated countries in the world. Mongolia has a large mass area as it is the 18th largest country worldwide. Large tracts of land are arid and unproductive, which lives only small portion of the land for agricultural activity. Most of the tribes that live in the region are nomadic or semi-nomadic. During winter, the ice cream vendors sell ice cream in paper boxes as there is no need for a refrigerator due to the low temperatures that can go as low as -30 °C. Mongolian is the second biggest landlocked country in the world after Kazakhstan. Mongolia is bordered by Russia in the north and China in the South.
Mongolian is the official language spoken in Mongolia. 94% of the people who live in Mongolia are ethnically Mongols. 5% of the population comprises members of Turkic language groups, which are mainly Uzbeks and Kazakhs. The remaining 1% of the people form minority language groups that comprise Chinese, Russians, Tungus and Tuvans. Foreign languages that are increasingly gaining popularity in the country includes Chinese, English and Korean. Most Mongolians come from the Khalka clan. This means that the Khalka dialect constitutes the basis for the Mongolian language. Other Mongolian dialects are predominantly spoken in China. The grouping of the various dialects have been controversial, so it is not possible to come up with an exact figure of how many Mongolian dialects exist.
Mongolian is an Altaic language. Approximately 7 million people speak it in Mongolia and other countries such as China. Khalka Mongolian is written using the Cyrillic script. The traditional Mongolian script is mostly used in China and efforts are being made to introduce it into Mongolia. This script was borrowed from the Turkic Uighurs, who had borrowed it from the the Sogdians, who are based in Iran. The Mongolian script is written in vertical columns from the top of the page to the bottom of the page and from left to write. The written language differs from the spoken language as it is based on the Mongolian that was spoken during the Genghis Khan era.
