The Demographics of Tajikistan is about the

demography Demography () is the statistical study of human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the interplay of fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration. Demographic analysis examine ...

of the

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

, including population growth,

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

ethnicity An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they Collective consciousness, collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, ...

, education level, health, economic status, religious affiliations, and other aspects of the population.

Population size and structure

9,275,787 (2019 est.) According to Worldmeters

's main ethnic group are the

Tajiks Tajiks (; ; also spelled ''Tadzhiks'' or ''Tadjiks'') is the name of various Persian-speaking Eastern Iranian groups of people native to Central Asia, living primarily in Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Even though the term ''Tajik'' ...

, with minorities such as the

Uzbeks The Uzbeks () are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia, being among the largest Turkic ethnic groups in the area. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, next to Kazakhs, Kazakh and Karakalpaks, Karakalpak ...

and Kyrgyz, and a small

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

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

are an Iranian people. In particular, they are descended from ancient Eastern Iranian peoples of

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

, such as the Soghdians and the

Bactrians Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient Iranian civilization in Central Asia based in the area south of the Oxus River (modern Amu Darya) and north of the mountains of the Hindu Kush, an area within the north of modern Afghani ...

, with an admixture of Western Iranian

Persians Persians ( ), or the Persian people (), are an Iranian ethnic group from West Asia that came from an earlier group called the Proto-Iranians, which likely split from the Indo-Iranians in 1800 BCE from either Afghanistan or Central Asia. They ...

as well as non-Iranian peoples. Until the 20th century, people in the region used two types of distinction to identify themselves: way of life - either

nomad Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the population of nomadic pa ...

ic 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. Historically, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were also home to

Bukharan Jews Bukharan Jews, also known as Bukharian Jews, are the Mizrahi Jewish sub-group of Central Asia that dwelt predominantly in what is today Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan. The group's name is derived from the Emirate of Bukh ...

, who trace their ancestry to the

Lost Tribes of Israel The Ten Lost Tribes were those from the Twelve Tribes of Israel that were said to have been exiled from the Kingdom of Israel after it was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire around 720 BCE. They were the following: Reuben, Simeon, Dan, Naph ...

taken captive by the Babylonians in the 7th century BC, but almost no Bukharian Jews are left in Tajikistan.

Age structure

Source:

Vital statistics

UN estimates

Registered births and deaths

Current vital statistics

Life expectancy

Demographic and health surveys

Fertility Rate (TFR) (Wanted Fertility Rate) and CBR (Crude Birth Rate):

Regional birth data

There were slightly over 224 thousand births in Tajikistan in 2017, down from 230 thousand in 2016. Most births occurred in

Khatlon Region Khatlon Region (), one of the four provinces of Tajikistan, is the most populous of the four first-level administrative regions in the country. It is situated in the southwest of the country, between the Hisor Range, Hisor (Gissar) Range in the n ...

(89 thousand births), followed by

Sughd Region Sughd Province, also referred to as the Sogdia Region, and Leninabad before 2001, is one of the four administrative divisions and one of the three provinces that make up Tajikistan. Centered in the historical Sogdiana, it is located in the north ...

(61 thousand births) and the

Districts of Republican Subordination Districts under Tajikistan Central Government Jurisdiction, also translated as Districts of Republican Subordination or Districts under Republic(an) Subordination (; , Latin Tajik alphabet: ), is a region in Tajikistan, consisting of 9 distric ...

(53 thousand births). The fewest births is recorded in

Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region Gorno-Badakhshan, officially the Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region in eastern Tajikistan, in the Pamir Mountains. It makes up nearly forty-five percent of the country's land area but only two percent of its popul ...

in eastern Tajikistan, with around 5,700 births. Dushanbe city recorded approximately 15,500 births in 2017. The

crude birth rate Birth rate, also known as natality, is the total number of live human births per 1,000 population for a given period divided by the length of the period in years. The number of live births is normally taken from a universal registration syste ...

for Tajikistan was 25.4‰ in 2017, down from 28.1‰ two years earlier (in 2015).

has the highest birth rate (28.1‰) in 2017, while the city of Dushanbe has the lowest birth rate with 18.8‰.

Ethnic groups

Ethnic Groups in 2020 Census *

86.1% *

11.3% * Kyrgyz 0.4% *

Russians Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...

0.3% * Other 1.9% File:Afghan_children_in_Badakhshan_Province-2012.jpg, Tajik children File:Tajikistani boys.jpg, Group of boys in Tajikistan File:Old bearded man from Tajikistan.jpg, A Tajik man in traditional headgear (2005). File:Tajik003.jpg, A Tajik woman and her son. File:Tajik004.jpg, Two young Tajik women File:A Tajikistani man.jpg, A religious scholar from Tajikistan (2005)

Ethnic makeup according to the population censuses from 1926 to 2020

Note: The category

also includes ethnic

Pamiris The Pamiris are an Eastern Iranian ethnic group, native to Central Asia, living primarily in Tajikistan (Gorno-Badakhshan), Afghanistan ( Badakhshan), Pakistan (Gilgit-Baltistan & Chitral) and China (Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County). They spe ...

, of which 65% are Shughni speakers, 13% are

Rushani Rushani is one of the Pamir languages spoken in Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Rushani is relatively closer to all Northern Pamiri languages sub-group whether it is Shughni, Yazgulami, Sarikuli or Oroshori sharing many grammatical and vocabu ...

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 a few thousands speakers of Yagnobi. According to the 2000 census, excluding the people whose

native language A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period hypothesis, critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' ...

s are Pamiri or Yagnobi, Tajiks account for 77.6% of the population and Pamiris and Yagnobis account for 2.3%.

Languages

Several dialects of

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

(Central Asian dialects of

) are spoken in Tajikistan and it is one of the two official languages of Tajikistan (officially referred to as Tajik).''Constitution of the Republic of Tajikistan'', November 6, 1994, Article 2.

is the official interethnic language and is widely used in both government and business. The different ethnic

minorities The term "minority group" has different meanings, depending on the context. According to common usage, it can be defined simply as a group in society with the least number of individuals, or less than half of a population. Usually a minority g ...

speak different languages, for instance Uzbek, Turkmen, Kyrgyz and

Khowar Khowar (, ''Khōwār'', ), also known by its common exonym Chitrali, is an Indo-Aryan language of the Dardic group, primarily spoken by the Kho (Chitrali) people, native to the Chitral region and surrounding areas of Pakistan. Khowar is th ...

. In the

Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province Gorno-Badakhshan, officially the Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region in eastern Tajikistan, in the Pamir Mountains. It makes up nearly forty-five percent of the country's land area but only two percent of its popul ...

, Shughni as well as other Pamir languages are spoken. In the northern Yaghnob valley, the

Yaghnobi language Yaghnobi is an Eastern Iranian language spoken in the upper valley of the Yaghnob River in the Zarafshan area of Tajikistan by the Yaghnobi people. It is considered to be a direct descendant of Sogdian and has sometimes been called Neo-Sog ...

is still spoken.

Religion

Religious demographics . *

Sunni Islam Sunni Islam is the largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any Succession to Muhammad, successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr ...

87.55% * Shia Ismaili Islam 9.9% * Other 3.55%

References

External links

Ethnolinguistic map of Tajikistan by Iraj Bashiri
*Dr. Kurbanov, Ruslan
OnIslam.net.
May 19, 2012. {{DEFAULTSORT:Demographics Of Tajikistan