Tajikistan People - 2022
SOURCE: 2022 CIA WORLD FACTBOOK
Population
9,119,347 (2022 est.)
Nationality
noun: Tajikistani(s)
adjective: Tajikistani
Ethnic groups
Tajik 84.3% (includes Pamiri and Yagnobi), Uzbek 13.8%, other 2% (includes Kyrgyz, Russian, Turkmen, Tatar, Arab) (2014 est.)
Languages
Tajik (official) 84.4%, Uzbek 11.9%, Kyrgyz 0.8%, Russian 0.5%, other 2.4% (2010 est.)
major-language sample(s):
Китоби Фактҳои Ҷаҳонӣ, манбаи бебадали маълумоти асосӣ (Tajik)
The World Factbook, the indispensable source for basic information.
note: Russian widely used in government and business
Religions
Muslim 98% (Sunni 95%, Shia 3%) other 2% (2014 est.)
Demographic profile
Tajikistan has a youthful age structure with almost 50% of the population under the age of 25. As a Soviet republic, Tajikistan had the highest fertility rate in the Soviet Union. The total fertility rate – the average number of births per woman – was highest in the mid-1970s, when it reached 6.3. In an effort to expand populations to meet economic goals, the Soviets provided resources that made large families affordable. The fertility rate decreased to 5 by the time of independence in 1991 and continued to decline thereafter. In 1996, the Tajik Government discontinued subsidies for large families and having several children became too expensive. The loss of subsidies, the 5-year civil war that followed independence, and other factors caused fertility to continue to fall steadily, but it remains above replacement level at 2.5. The availability of healthcare providers and family planning services is limited, contributing to couples having more children than they would like. As of 2017, 21% of women were using contraceptives.
Tajikistan’s ethnic make-up changed with the Soviet’s introduction of industrialization. Large numbers of Russian and Ukrainian immigrants arrived in the mid-1920s. Some were forced to immigrate while others came voluntarily to work in the cotton industry and in Tajikistan’s Soviet Government. The Russian and Ukrainian immigrants formed urban communities, while Tajiks and Uzbeks continued to live predominantly in rural areas. In addition, thousands of Tatars and Germans were deported to Tajikistan, accused of Nazi complicity during WWII.
Tajikistan’s ethnic composition was later shaped by the post-independence civil war from 1992-1997 and the economic devastation that followed. Most non-Tajik ethnic groups, including Uzbeks, Russians, Kyrgyz, and Ukrainians, fled to Russia and other former Soviet republics and many never returned, making the country overwhelming Tajik; approximately 80% of the population was Tajik by 2000.
Since the mid-1990s, labor has probably been Tajikistan’s main export. Remittances accounted for 30% of GDP in 2018 and are Tajikistan’s largest source of external income. Poverty, a lack of jobs, and higher wages abroad push Tajiks to emigrate. Russia – particularly Moscow – is the main destination, while a smaller number of religious Muslims, usually of Uzbek ancestry, migrate to Uzbekistan. The vast majority of labor migrants are unskilled or low-skilled young men who work primarily in construction but also agriculture, transportation, and retail. Many Tajik families are dependent on the money they send home for necessities, such as food and clothing, as well as for education and weddings rather than investment.
Age structure
0-14 years: 31.43% (male 1,420,271/female 1,368,445)
15-24 years: 18.13% (male 816,658/female 792,231)
25-54 years: 40.58% (male 1,789,271/female 1,811,566)
55-64 years: 6.23% (male 253,862/female 299,378)
65 years and over: 3.63% (male 132,831/female 189,156) (2020 est.)
Dependency ratios
total dependency ratio: 65.9
youth dependency ratio: 60.4
elderly dependency ratio: 5.5
potential support ratio: 18.1 (2021 est.)
Median age
total: 25.3 years
male: 24.6 years
female: 26 years (2020 est.)
Population growth rate
1.4% (2022 est.)
Birth rate
20.73 births/1,000 population (2022 est.)
Death rate
5.72 deaths/1,000 population (2022 est.)
Net migration rate
-1.03 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2022 est.)
Population distribution
the country's population is concentrated at lower elevations, with perhaps as much as 90% of the people living in valleys; overall density increases from east to west
Urbanization
urban population: 28.2% of total population (2023)
rate of urbanization: 2.73% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)
Major urban areas - population
962,000 DUSHANBE (capital) (2022)
Sex ratio
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
0-14 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
15-24 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
25-54 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
55-64 years: 0.84 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.48 male(s)/female
total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2022 est.)
Mother's mean age at first birth
23.2 years (2017 est.)
Maternal mortality ratio
17 deaths/100,000 live births (2017 est.)
Infant mortality rate
total: 32.33 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 37.03 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 27.39 deaths/1,000 live births (2022 est.)
Life expectancy at birth
total population: 69.36 years
male: 66.2 years
female: 72.69 years (2022 est.)
Total fertility rate
2.45 children born/woman (2022 est.)
Contraceptive prevalence rate
29.3% (2017)
Drinking water source
improved: urban: 96.5% of population
rural: 79.9% of population
total: 84.4% of population
unimproved: urban: 3.5% of population
rural: 20.1% of population
total: 15.6% of population (2020 est.)
Current health expenditure
7.1% of GDP (2019)
Physicians density
1.72 physicians/1,000 population (2014)
Hospital bed density
4.7 beds/1,000 population (2014)
Sanitation facility access
improved: urban: 98.9% of population
rural: 99.6% of population
total: 99.4% of population
unimproved: urban: 1.1% of population
rural: 0.4% of population
total: 0.6% of population (2020 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate
0.2% (2021 est.)
Major infectious diseases
degree of risk: high (2020)
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
vectorborne diseases: malaria
note: on 21 March 2022, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Travel Alert for polio in Asia; Tajikistan is currently considered a high risk to travelers for circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV); vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in oral polio vaccine (OPV) and that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus; this means it can be spread more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with the stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an “infected” person who received oral polio vaccine; the CDC recommends that before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series; before travel to any high-risk destination, CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine
Obesity - adult prevalence rate
14.2% (2016)
Alcohol consumption per capita
total: 0.85 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
beer: 0.38 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
wine: 0.01 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
spirits: 0.45 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
other alcohols: 0 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
Children under the age of 5 years underweight
7.6% (2017)
Child marriage
women married by age 15: 0.1%
women married by age 18: 8.7% (2017 est.)
Education expenditures
5.9% of GDP (2020 est.)
Literacy
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99.8%
male: 99.8%
female: 99.7% (2015)
School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)
total: 11 years
male: 12 years
female: 11 years (2013)
NOTE: The information regarding Tajikistan on this page is re-published from the 2022 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Tajikistan 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Tajikistan 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.
This page was last modified 01 Dec 23, Copyright © 23 ITA all rights reserved.