Demographics of Uzbekistan

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Uzbekistan is Central Asia's most populous country. Its 26 million people, concentrated in the south and east of the country, are close to half the region's total population. Much of Uzbekistan's population was engaged in cotton farming in small rural communities when the country was part of Soviet Union. The population continues to be heavily rural and dependent on farming for its livelihood.

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

1 Figures and Age Structure
2 Ethnic groups
3 Religions
4 Languages
5 Education
6 Migration
7 See also
8 References

Population: 27,780,059 (July 2007 est.)

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.)

Demographics of Uzbekistan, Data of FAO, year 2005 ; Number of inhabitants in thousands.

Population growth rate: 1.732% (2007 est.)

Birth rate: 26.46 births/1,000 population (2007 est.)

Death rate: 7.73 deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.)

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: 68.89 deaths/1,000 live births (2007 est.)

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): 2.88 children born/woman (2007 est.)

In 2002, the estimated TFR was 2.92. Uzbeks-2.99, Russians-1.35, Karakalpak 2.69, Tadzhik-3.19, Kazakh-2.95, Tatar-2.05 and Others-2.53. Tashkent City-1.96, Karakalpakstan-2.90, Fergana-2.73, Eastern region - 2.71, East Central - 2.96, Central-3.43 and Western-3.05. 1

Net migration rate: -1.72 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2004 est.)

Uzbek 71%, Russian 8.5%, Tajik (their number is believed to be much higher) 5%, Kazakh 4%, Karakalpak 2%, Tatar 2.5%, Germans 0,1%, other 2.5% (1996 est.)^[1]

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).

An estimated 93,000 Jews were present in Uzbekistan in the early 1990s (source Library of Congress Country Studies).

See also: Islam in Uzbekistan

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, the language distribution is : Uzbek 74.3%, Russian 14.2%, Tajik 4.4%, other 7.1%. Other sources say that the percentage of the Persian-speaking (Tajiki) population of Uzbekistan is c. 30 percent of the population. (See: The Tajiks of Uzbekistan, Central Asian Survey (1996), 15(2), 213-216).

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

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.

At least 10 percent of the Uzbekistan's labour force works abroad (mostly in Russia and Kazakhstan).^[2]