The apostolic prefecture's territory stretches over 1,564,116 square kilometers and covers the capital city, Ulaanbaatar, and main cities Darkhan and Erdenet. Two more Church province centers are Zuun Mod (Central Province) and Arvaikheer (Ovorkhangai Province).
The population was approximately 1 million at the end of 2006. (The population of the whole country is 2,751,314). The other cities have less than 100,000 people each. The majority of the population belongs to the ethnic group of Khalkha Mongol. Other Mongolian groups are Oirad, Buriad, Uriankhai. There are also Kazakhs, local Russians and Chinese in the territory.
Mongolian is the language used in the country. English is used by the Church; and Kazakh, Chinese, Russian by ethnic groups.
Mongolia's political system is parliamentary democracy.
The culture is originally nomadic, strongly influenced by Russian and European culture.
Music: pentatonic, musical instruments are similar to Chinese, Korean etc. stringed instruments. The national instrument is the Morin Khuur, the horse-headed fiddle, a cello-like instrument with two strings and a bow, both made of white horse tail hair.
Traditional song types: short song (regular folk song), long-song (folk song sung with elongated syllables), huumii (song sung by men from the throat, with two or three melodies sung simultaneously by one person) Very strong European influence in modern culture, especially in drama, opera, (came through Russia). European cultural forms are preferred to Asian/Chinese forms.
Dance: A Western Mongolian tribe, the Oirads dance the bilge, which uses much shoulder movement. The dances usually tell stories.
