Uzbekistan People Groups

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STATISTICS ABOUT UZBEKISTAN

Geography: Location: Central Asia, north of Afghanistan
Area:
total: 447,400 sq km
land: 425,400 sq km
water: 22,000 sq km
Area—comparative: slightly larger than California
Land boundaries:
total: 6,221 km
border countries: Afghanistan 137 km, Kazakhstan 2,203 km, Kyrgyzstan 1,099 km, Tajikistan
1,161 km, Turkmenistan 1,621 km
Coastline: 0 km
note: Uzbekistan borders the Aral Sea (420 km)
Maritime claims: none (doubly landlocked)
Climate: mostly midlatitude desert, long, hot summers, mild winters; semiarid grassland in east
Terrain: mostly flat-to-rolling sandy desert with dunes; broad, flat intensely irrigated river valleys
along course of Amu Darya, Sirdaryo, and Zarafshon; Fergana Valley in east surrounded by
mountainous Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan; shrinking Aral Sea in west
Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Sariqarnish Kuli -12 m
highest point: Adelunga Toghi 4,301 m
Natural resources: natural gas, petroleum, coal, gold, uranium, silver, copper, lead and zinc,
tungsten, molybdenum
Land use:
arable land: 9%
permanent crops: 1%
permanent pastures: 46%
forests and woodland: 3%
other: 41% (1993 est.)
Irrigated land: 40,000 sq km (1993 est.)
Natural hazards: NA
Environment—current issues: drying up of the Aral Sea is resulting in growing concentrations
of chemical pesticides and natural salts; these substances are then blown from the increasingly
exposed lake bed and contribute to desertification; water pollution from industrial wastes and the
heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides is the cause of many human health disorders; increasing soil
salinization; soil contamination from agricultural chemicals, including DDT
Geography—note: along with Liechtenstein, one of the only two doubly landlocked countries in
the world

People
Population: 23,784,321 (July 1998 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 38% (male 4,591,140; female 4,451,246)
15-64 years: 57% (male 6,755,371; female 6,874,483)
65 years and over: 5% (male 435,036; female 677,045) (July 1998 est.)
Population growth rate: 1.33% (1998 est.)
Birth rate: 23.69 births/1,000 population (1998 est.)
Death rate: 7.68 deaths/1,000 population (1998 est.)
Net migration rate: -2.68 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1998 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.64 male(s)/female (1998 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 71.04 deaths/1,000 live births (1998 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 64.11 years
male: 60.49 years
female: 67.91 years (1998 est.)
Total fertility rate: 2.87 children born/woman (1998 est.)
Nationality:
noun: Uzbekistani(s)
adjective: Uzbekistani
Ethnic groups: Uzbek 80%, Russian 5.5%, Tajik 5%, Kazakh 3%, Karakalpak 2.5%, Tatar
1.5%, other 2.5% (1996 est.)
Religions: Muslim 88% (mostly Sunnis), Eastern Orthodox 9%, other 3%
Languages: Uzbek 74.3%, Russian 14.2%, Tajik 4.4%, other 7.1%
Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 97%
male: 98%
female: 96% (1989 est.)

Government
Country conventional name: Republic of Uzbekistan
Government type: republic; effectively authoritarian presidential rule, with little power outside the
executive branch and executive power concentrated in the presidency
National capital: Tashkent (Toshkent)

Economy
Economy—overview: Uzbekistan is a dry, landlocked country of which 10% consists of
intensely cultivated, irrigated river valleys. It was one of the poorest areas of the former Soviet
Union with more than 60% of its population living in densely populated rural communities.
Uzbekistan is now the world's third largest cotton exporter, a major producer of gold and natural
gas, and a regionally significant producer of chemicals and machinery. Following independence in
December 1991, the government sought to prop up its Soviet-style command economy with
subsidies and tight controls on production and prices. Faced with high rates of inflation, however,
the government began to reform in mid-1994, by introducing tighter monetary policies, expanding
privatization, slightly reducing the role of the state in the economy, and improving the environment
for foreign investors. Nevertheless, the state continues to be a dominating influence in the
economy, and reforms have so far failed to bring about much-needed structural changes. The IMF
suspended Uzbekistan's $185 million standby arrangement in late 1996 because of governmental
steps that made impossible fulfillment of Fund conditions.
GDP: purchasing power parity—$60.7 billion (1997 est.)
GDP—real growth rate: 2.4% (1997 est.)
GDP—per capita: purchasing power parity—$2,500 (1997 est.)
GDP—composition by sector:
agriculture: 26%
industry: 27%
services: 47% (1996 est.)
Inflation rate—consumer price index: 55% (1996 est.)
Labor force:
total: 8.6 million (1996 est.)
by occupation: agriculture and forestry 44%, industry and construction 20%, other 36% (1995)
Unemployment rate: 5% plus another 10% underemployed (December 1996 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $NA
expenditures: $NA, including capital expenditures of $NA
Industries: textiles, food processing, machine building, metallurgy, natural gas
Industrial production growth rate: 6% (1996)
Agriculture—products: cotton, vegetables, fruits, grain; livestock
Exports:
total value: $3.8 billion (1996)
commodities: cotton, gold, natural gas, mineral fertilizers, ferrous metals, textiles, food products,
autos
partners: Russia, Ukraine, Eastern Europe, Western Europe
Imports:
total value: $4.7 billion (1996)
commodities: grain, machinery and parts, consumer durables, other foods
partners: principally other FSU, Czech Republic, Western Europe
Debt—external: $2.3 billion (of which $510 million to Russia) (1996 est.)
Economic aid:
recipient: ODA, $71 million (1993)
note: commitments, $2,915 million ($135 million in disbursements) (1992-95)
Currency: introduced provisional som-coupons 10 November 1993 which circulated parallel to
the Russian rubles; became the sole legal currency 31 January 1994; was replaced in July 1994 by
the som currency
Exchange rates: Uzbekistani soms (UKS) per US$1—75.8 (September 1997), 41.1 (1996),
30.2 (1995), 11.4 (1994), 1.0 (1993)
More information about Uzbekistan