Demographics of Tajikistan

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Tajik children
Tajik children

Tajikistan's main ethnic group are the Tajiks, with minorities such as the Uzbeks and Kyrgyz, and a small Russian minority. Due to the fact that 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[citation needed]. Thus almost 10 million Tajiks were forcefully Uzbekisized when Turkization promoted by Pan-Turkists failed[citation needed]. The majority of Tajiks remained outside of their historic lands; that is, almost 10 million in Uzbekistan , 7 million in Afghanistan , 2 million in Iran, and 1 million in Russia.[citation needed]

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.

A Tajik Woman with gold teeth
A Tajik Woman with gold teeth
Population: thousands of inhabitants. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2005.
Population: thousands of inhabitants. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2005.
Young Tajik women
Young Tajik women

Contents

[edit] Figures and age structure

Data from CIA factbook unless otherwise indicated.

Population: 6,863,752 (July 2003 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 39.8% (male 1,376,244; female 1,353,108)
15-64 years: 55.5% (male 1,896,509; female 1,915,334)
65 years and over: 4.7% (male 140,993; female 181,564) (2003 est.)

Population growth rate: 1.895% (2007 est.)

Birth rate: 27.33 births/1,000 population (2007 est.)

Death rate: 7.05 deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.)

Net migration rate: -1.33 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.78 male(s)/female
total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2003 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
total: 113.43 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 99.63 deaths/1,000 live births (2003 est.)
male: 126.58 deaths/1,000 live births

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 64.37 years
male: 61.39 years
female: 67.5 years (2003 est.)

Total fertility rate: 4.17 children born/woman (2003 est.)

[edit] Ethnic groups

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 Pamiris (of which 65% are Shughnis, 13% Rushanis, 12% Wakhis, 5% Bartangis, 3% Yazgulyamis, 1.5% Khufis, and 0.8% Ishkashimis) and 5,000 Yagnobis. Tajiks excluding the Pamiri peoples and the yagnobis thus account for 77.6% of the population according to the 2000 census.

Year 1926 1937 1939 1959 1970 1979 1989 2000
Total population 827,2 1383,5 1484,4 1980,5 2899,6 3806,2 5092,6 6127,5
Tajiks 619,0 840,6 884,0 1051,2 1629,9 2237,0 3172,4 4898,4
Uzbeks and other Turkic peoples 176,4 332,3 359,6 455,0 665,7 873,2 1197,8 1012,5
Of which: Lakai 51,0
::Kongrat 15,1
::Katagan 4,9
::Barlos 3,7
::Yuz 1,1
Russians 5,6 114,9 134,9 262,6 344,1 395,1 388,5 68,2
Kyrgyz 11,4 26,4 28,0 25,7 35,5 48,4 63,8 65,5
Turkmen 4,1 3,2 4,0 7,1 11,0 14,0 20,5 20,3
Tatars 1,0 16,6 18,3 56,9 70,8 79,5 79,4 19,0
Of which: Crimean Tatars 7,2 0,1
Arabs 3,3 2,3 2,3 0,3 14,5
Afghanis 0,7 1,0 0,55 2,1 4,7
Roma 0,19 1,2 1,6 1,8 4,3
Ukranians 1,1 12,5 17,4 26,9 31,7 35,8 41,4 3,8
Koreans 0,04 2,4 8,5 11,2 13,4 1,7
Germans 0,06 2,0 32,6 37,7 38,9 32,7 1,1
Armenians 0,17 1,3 2,9 3,8 4,9 5,7 1,0
Ossetians 0,15 1,7 4,5 5,8 7,7 7,9 1,0
Kazakhs 1,6 12,4 12,7 12,6 8,3 9,6 11,4 0,9
Bashkirs 0,17 1,4 3,9 4,8 6,1 6,8 0,9
Azerbaijanis 1,6 2,2 3,6 0,8
Turks 0,004 0,1 0,8 0,7
Belarussians 0,06 1,0 2,8 4,0 5,1 7,2 0,5
Moldovans 0,003 0,04 0,4 0,6 0,9 0,3
Mordvins 0,18 4,8 6,7 7,0 6,5 5,5 0,3
Jews 0,2 5,2 12,4 14,6 14,7 14,8 0,2
Of which: Bukharian Jews 0,08 0,8 6,2 4,9 0,02
Chuvash 0,02 0,5 1,7 2,5 0,2
Georgians 0,03 0,4 0,7 0,8 1,0 0,2
Laks 0,05 0,9 1,4 0,14
Poles 0,07 0,6 0,7 0,07
Bulgarians 0,04 1,1 0,07
Other 1,3 2,3 7,2 6,3
Nationality not specified 0,4 0,1 0,05 0,01

[edit] 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]

[edit] Languages

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

[edit] Education

Education is required through high school but completion rate is under 90%.
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99.4%
male: 99.6%
female: 99.1% (2003 est.)

[edit] References

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