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Uzbekistan is Central Asia's most populous country. Its 28.3 million people (July 2008 estimate)¹ comprise nearly half the region's total population.

The population of Uzbekistan is very young: 34.1% of its people are younger than 14. According to official sources, Uzbeks comprise a majority (80%) of the total population. Other ethnic groups include Russians 5.5%, Tajiks 5%, Kazakhs 3%, Karakalpaks 2.5%, and Tatars 1.5% (1996 estimates).¹ There is some controversy about the percentage of the Tajik population. While official data from Uzbekistan put the number of Tajiks at 5%, some Western scholars, citing anonymous "observers" or "Tajiks around the country", put it at 20%² or even as high as 25%-30%.³ Uzbekistan has an ethnic Korean population that was forcibly relocated to the region by Stalin from the Soviet Far East in 1937-1938. There are also small groups of Armenians in Uzbekistan, mostly in Tashkent and Samarkand. The nation is 88% Muslim (mostly Sunni, with a 5% Shi'a minority), 9% Eastern Orthodox and 3% other faiths. The US State Department's International Religious Freedom Report 2004 reports that 0.2% of the population are Buddhist (these being ethnic Koreans). The Bukharian Jews have lived in Central Asia, mostly in Uzbekistan, for thousands of years. There were 94,900 Jews in Uzbekistan in 1989⁴ (about 0.5% of the population according to the 1989 census), but now, since the collapse of the USSR, most Central Asian Jews left the region for the United States or Israel. Fewer than 5,000 Jews remain in Uzbekistan.⁵

Much of Uzbekistan's population was engaged in cotton farming in large-scale collective farms when the country was part of the Soviet Union. The population continues to be heavily rural and dependent on farming for its livelihood, although the farm structure in Uzbekistan has largely shifted from collective to individual since 1990.

The nationality of any person from Uzbekistan is Uzbekistani, while the ethnic Uzbek majority simply call themselves Uzbeks.

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

Population

Age structure

0-14 years: 32.4% (male 4,587,338; female 4,416,014)
15-64 years: 62.8% (male 8,636,226; female 8,817,633)
65 years and over: 4.8% (male 543,417; female 779,431) (2007 est.)

Population growth rate

Birth rate

Death rate

Sex ratio

at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.039 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.979 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.697 male(s)/female
total population: 0.982 male(s)/female (2007 est.)

Infant mortality rate

Life expectancy at birth

total population: 64.98 years
male: 61.57 years
female: 68.56 years (2007 est.)

Life expectancy is long, but after the breakup of the Soviet Union, health care resources have declined, reducing health care quality, accessibility, and efficiency.

Total fertility rate (TFR)

In 2002, the estimated TFR was 2.92; Uzbeks 2.99, Russians 1.35, Karakalpak 2.69, Tajik 3.19, Kazakh 2.95, Tatar 2.05, others 2.53; Tashkent City 1.96, Karakalpakstan 2.90, Fergana 2.73; Eastern region 2.71, East Central 2.96, Central 3.43, Western 3.05.⁶

Net migration rate

Literacy

definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99.3%
male: 99.6%
female: 99% (2003 est.)

Ethnic groups

Ethnic composition according to the 1989 population census (latest available):⁷⁸
Uzbek 71%, Russian 8%, Tajik 5% (believed to be much higher²³), Kazakh 4%, Tatar 3%, Karakalpak 2%, other 7%.

Estimates of ethnic composition in 1996 from CIA World Factbook:¹
Uzbek 80%, Russian 5.5%, Tajik 5%, Kazakh 3%, Karakalpak 2.5%, Tatar 1.5%, other 2.5% (1996 estimates).

The table shows the ethnic composition of Uzbekistan's population (in percent) according to four population censuses between 1959 and 1989 (no population census was carried out in 1999, and the next census is now being planned for 2010).⁹ The increase in the percentage of Tajik from 3.9% of the population in 1979 to 4.7% in 1989 may be attributed, at least in part, to the change in census instructions: in the 1989 census for the first the nationality could be reported not according to the passport, but freely self-declared on the basis of the respondent's ethnic self-identification.¹⁰

Nationality	1959 census	1970 census	1979 census	1989 census
Total population (thou.)	8,105.5	11,799.0	15,389.3	19,810.1
Uzbeks	62.2	65.4	68.7	71.4
Russians	13.5	12.5	10.8	8.3
Tajiks	3.8	3.8	3.9	4.7
Kazakhs	4.1	4.0	4.0	4.1
Tatars	5.5	4.9	4.2	3.3
Karakalpaks	2.1	1.9	1.9	2.1
Kyrgyz	1.1	1.0	0.9	0.9
Koreans	1.7	1.3	1.1	0.9
Ukrainians	1.1	0.9	0.7	0.8
Turkmens	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.6
Meskheti Turks	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.5
Jews	1.2	0.9	0.7	0.5
Armenians	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3
Azerbaijanis	0.5	0.4	0.4	0.2
Uyghurs	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2
Belarussians	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
Persians	—	0.1	0.1	0.1
Others	1.9	1.7	1.1	1.0

Religions

Muslim 88% (mostly Sunnis), Eastern Orthodox 9%, other 3% (including 0.2% Buddhist - US State Department's International Religious Freedom Report 2004 - amongst the Korean population).

There were 94,900 Jews in Uzbekistan in 1989⁴ (about 0.5% of the population according to the 1989 census), but fewer than 5,000 remained in 2007.⁵

Due to high literacy rates and Soviet educational background, religious fundamentalism is not widespread in Uzbekistan; study showed that only 35% of surveyed consider religion as "very important".¹¹ See also: Islam in Uzbekistan

Languages

Uzbek is the official state language; however, Russian is the de facto language for interethnic communication, including much day-to-day government and business use.

According to some sources,^who? the language distribution is: Uzbek 74.3%, Russian 14.2%, Tajik 4.4%, other 7.1%. Other sources suggest that the Persian-speaking Tajik population of Uzbekistan may be as large as 25%-30% of the total population,³ but these estimates are based on unverifiable reports of "Tajiks around the country". The Tajik language is particularly widespread in the cities of Bukhara and Samarqand because of their relatively large population of ethnic Tajiks.

Education

The educational system has achieved 99% literacy, and the mean amount of schooling for both men and women is 11 years. However, due to budget constraints and other transitional problems following the collapse of the Soviet Union, texts and other school supplies, teaching methods, curricula, and educational institutions are outdated, inappropriate, and poorly kept. Additionally, the proportion of school-aged persons enrolled has been dropping. Although the government is concerned about this, budgets remain tight.

Migration

At least 10 percent of Uzbekistan's labour force works abroad (mostly in Russia and Kazakhstan).¹²

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Uzbekistan in CIA World Factbook
^ ^a ^b Svante E. Cornell, "Uzbekistan: A Regional Player in Eurasian Geopolitics?", European Security, vol. 20, no. 2, Summer 2000.
^ ^a ^b ^c Richard Foltz, "The Tajiks of Uzbekistan", Central Asian Survey, 15(2), 213-216 (1996).
^ ^a ^b World Jewish Population 2001, American Jewish Yearbook, vol. 101 (2001), p. 561.
^ ^a ^b World Jewish Population 2007, American Jewish Yearbook, vol. 107 (2007), p. 592.
^ A.I. Kamilov, J. Sullivan, and Z. D. Mutalova, Fertility, Chapter 4 in Uzbekistan Health Examination Survey 2002.
^ Library of Congress, A Country Study: Uzbekistan. Ethnic composition
^ A Country Study: Uzbekistan. Ethnic composition, Appendix Table 4.
^ Results of population censuses in Uzbekistan in 1959, 1970, 1979, and 1989.
^ Ethnic Atlas of Uzbekistan, Part 1: Ethnic minorities, Open Society Institute, p. 195 (Russian).
^ Pew Global Attitudes
^ International Crisis Group, Uzbekistan: Stagnation and Uncertainty, Asia Briefing N°67, 22 August 2007 (free registration needed to view full report)

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