Demographics of Tajikistan

Contemporary Tajiks are mostly Indo-European Indo-Aryans, in particular descended from ancient peoples of Central Asia such as the Soghdians and the Bactrians, along with a very small degree of mixture from non-Indo-European peoples.

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 Indo-Aryan descent, the Tajiks. The distinction became less evident with gradual sedentarization of former Asian Turko-Mongol tribes and gradual intermixing of Asian and Indo-Arayn Tajiks who borrowed to speak both languages. With the formation of five Central Asian republics under USSR many Tajiks were forced to sign themselves as Uzbek to avoid prosecution in current Uzbekistan. Thus almost 10 million Tajiks were forcefully Uzbekisized when Turkization promoted by Pan-Turkists failed. The majority of Tajiks remained outside of their historic lands that is in Uzbkeistan almost 10 Million, Afghanistan 7 million, Iran 2 million.

Historically, Tajikistan was home to Bukharan Jews tracing their ancestry to Israelites taken captive by the Babylonians in the 7th century BC, only several hundred remain today.

Demographics of Tajikistan, Data of FAO, year 2005 ; Number of inhabitants in thousands.

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: 2.13% (2003 est.)

Birth rate: 32.78 births/1,000 population (2003 est.)

Death rate: 8.46 deaths/1,000 population (2003 est.)

Net migration rate: -3.06 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2003 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.)

Nationality:
noun: Tajikistani(s)
adjective: Tajikistani

Ethnic groups: Tajik 79.9%, Uzbek 15.3%, Russian 1.1 (declining because of emigration), Kyrgys 1.1% , other (including Bukharan Jews) 2.6%

Religions: Sunni Muslim 85%, Shi'a Muslim 5%, Others including Jewish 10%

Languages: Tajik (official), Russian widely used in government and business, Shugni (spoken in area near Khorog)

Literacy: 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.)