The Demographics of Tajikistan is about the demographic features of the population of Tajikistan, including population growth, population density, ethnicity, education level, health, economic status, religious affiliations, and other aspects of the population.

Tajikistan: Population and rural population 1958-2005 (millions). State Statistical Committee, Dushanbe, yearbooks from various years.

Tajik man in traditional headgear (2005).

A Tajik woman and her son.

A group of boys from Tajikistan.

Demographic trends [edit]

Tajikistan's main ethnic group are the Tajiks, with minorities such as the Uzbeks and Kyrgyz, and a small Russian minority. Because not everyone in Tajikistan is an ethnic Tajik, the non-Tajik citizens of the country are referred to as Tajikistani. The official nationality of any person from Tajikistan is a Tajikistani, while the ethnic Tajik majority simply call themselves Tajik.

Contemporary Tajiks are an Iranian people. In particular, they are descended from ancient Eastern Iranian peoples of Central Asia, such as the Soghdians and the Bactrians, with an admixture of Western Iranian Persians as well as non-Iranian peoples.^[1]

Until the 20th century, people in the region used two types of distinction to identify themselves: way of life - either nomadic or sedentary - and place of residence. By the late nineteenth century, the Tajik and Uzbek peoples, who had lived in proximity for centuries and often used each other's languages, did not perceive themselves as two distinct nationalities. The modern labels were imposed artificially when Central Asia was divided into five Soviet republics in the 1920s.^[1] With the formation of five Central Asian republics under the USSR, many Tajiks were forced to sign themselves as Uzbek to avoid persecution in current Uzbekistan^{[citation needed]}.

Historically, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were also home to Bukharan Jews, who trace their ancestry to the Lost Tribes of Israel taken captive by the Babylonians in the 7th century BC, but almost no Bukharian Jews are left in Tajikistan.

Vital statistics [edit]

UN estimates^[2] [edit]

Official statistics [edit]

Births and deaths^[3] [edit]

Ethnic groups [edit]

Demographic map of Tajikistan

Young Tajik women.

A religious scholar from Tajikistan (2005).

Tajik 79.9%, Uzbek 16.5%, Russian 1.1% (declining because of emigration), Kyrgyz 1.1%, other (including Pashtuns, Bukharian Jews and Volga Germans) 2.6% (2000 population census).

Ethnic makeup according to the population censuses from 1926 to 2000 (in thousands)^[4]
Note: The category Tajiks also includes approximately 135,000 ethnic Pamiris, of which 65% are Shughni speakers, 13% are Rushani speakers, 12% speak Wakhi, 5% are Bartangi speakers, 3% are Yazgulyami speakers, 1.5% speak Khufi, and 0.8% are Ishkashimi speakers. In addition there are 5,000 speakers of Yagnobi. According to the 2000 census, excluding the people whose native languages are Pamiri or Yagnobi, Tajiks account for 77.6% of the population.

Languages [edit]

Several dialects of Tajik (a variety of the Persian) are spoken, and it is the official language.^[5] Russian is widely used in both government and business. The different ethnic minorities speak different languages, for instance Uzbek, Kyrgyz and Pashto.^[6] In the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province, Shughni as well as other Pamir languages are spoken. In the northern Yaghnob valley, the Yaghnobi language is still spoken.

Religions [edit]

According to a 2009 U.S. State Department release, the population of Tajikistan is 90% Muslim, (approximately 85% Sunni and 5% Shia).^[7] The remaining 10% of the population are followers of Russian Orthodoxy, or followers of other Christian churches (Roman Catholics, Seventh-Day Adventists and Baptists). There also was a small Armenian minority, and a number of Zoroastrians. There are a small number of adherents to Bahá'í Faith and Judaism.

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics [edit]

For the latest statistics, see this country's entry in the CIA World Factbook

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook as of September 2009, unless otherwise indicated.

Population [edit]

7,349,145 (2009 est.)

Age structure [edit]

0–14 years: 34.3% (male 1,282,681/female 1,238,607)
15–64 years: 62.1% (male 2,260,552/female 2,303,034)
65 years and over: 3.6% (male 112,334/female 151,937) (2009 est.)

Population growth rate [edit]

1.88% (2009 est.)

Net migration rate [edit]

-1.28 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.)

Sex ratio [edit]

at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
15–64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.74 male(s)/female
total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2009 est.)

Life expectancy at birth [edit]

total population: 65.33 years
male: 62.29 years
female: 68.52 years (2009 est.)

Education [edit]

Education is required through high school (12 years of schooling) but completion rate is under 90%;

Literacy [edit]

definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99.5%
male: 99.7%
female: 99.2% (2000 census)

See also [edit]

• Demography of Central Asia
• Islam in Tajikistan

References [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tajiks

External links [edit]

• Ethnolinguistic map of Tajikistan by Iraj Bashiri
• Dr. Kurbanov, Ruslan. Majority Minoritized by Government: Muslims in Tajikistan. OnIslam.net. May 19, 2012.