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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.

Demographic trends

Tajik man in traditional headgear (2005).

A Tajik woman with gold teeth.

Tajik boys

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. Although to some degree intermixed, the nomads are considered to be Turko-Mongol in origin and the sedentary people of Iranian descent, the Tajiks. The distinction became less evident with gradual sedentarization of former Asian Turko-Mongol tribes and gradual intermixing of Asian and Iranian Tajiks who borrowed from both languages. 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.

Historically, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were also home to Bukharian 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.

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

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

7,349,145 (2009 est.)

Age structure

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

1.88% (2009 est.)

Birth rate

26.9 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)

Death rate

6.83 deaths/1,000 population (2009 est.)

Net migration rate

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

Sex ratio

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.)

Infant mortality rate

total: 41.03 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 45.9 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 35.91 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)

Life expectancy at birth

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

Total fertility rate

2.99 children born/woman (2009 est.)

Education

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

Literacy

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

Ethnic groups

Young Tajik women.

Old Tajik woman (2007).

A religious scholar from Tajikistan (2005).

Tajik 79.9%, Uzbek 15.3%, Russian 1.1% (declining because of emigration), Kyrgyz 1.1% , other (including Bukharian Jews and Volga Germans) 2.6% (2000 population census).

Ethic makeup according to the population censuses from 1926 to 2000 (in thousands)^[2]
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.

Religions

Islam 90% - 97% (mostly Sunni Islam and followed by Shi'a Islam), Christianity 2.5% (mostly Orthodox Christian), Others 0.5% (including Zoroastrian, Bahá'í, Buddhist, Hare Krishna, Jews, etc) ^[3][4][5]

Languages

Tajiki (a variety of Persian language) (official),^[6] Russian (widely used in government and business), Shughni (spoken in area near Khorog in Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province).

References

External links

• Ethnolinguistic map of Tajikistan by Iraj Bashiri