Business there is like everywhere else. Close personal ties are important and they want to be respected. Family matters are important.

Diverse ethnic groups:
85% Mongol, mostly Khalkha Mongol.
7% Turkic (mainly Kazakh),
4.6% Tungusic
3.4% other groups.
Four million Mongols live outside Mongolia.

Language:
Over 90% Khalkha Mongol ('Mongolian Language'). The script is Cyrillic due to Russian influence but a switch back to traditional script has begun in schools. Minor languages include Kazakh.

Religion is typicall very important:
94% Tibetan Buddhist Lamas , also elements of Shamanism.
6% Muslim (mainly in the south- west).

Sparse population:
Excluding the capital Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia has an amazingly low population density of half a person per square kilometer (less than one person a square mile).

General changes:
In 1990 Mongolia became a democracy, many people left the town and cooperatives and went herding again. Not withouth risk. A lot of the traditional knowledge had faded and only slowly did some of them readapt to the nomadic way of life. Nowadays Mongolia is modern country where people drive their fancy landcruisers, while talking to their trendy mobile phone. Economic growth has been encouraging, while the elections of 2004 shows that democracy is really ruling the country.