PEOPLE

With an estimated 26,851,195 inhabitants in 2005, Uzbekistan has the largest population of the former Soviet republics in Central Asia and the third largest population of all the former Soviet republics (after Russia and Ukraine). The country’s population growth rate is 1.7 percent per year due to relatively high birth rates. The average population density is 60 persons per sq km (155 per sq mi), although population density is far higher in the Fergana Valley, the most densely settled area in Central Asia.

Some 37 percent of the total population lives in urban areas. Toshkent, the capital, is the largest city in Central Asia and the fourth largest in the former Soviet Union (after Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Kyiv). Other major cities, which are concentrated in the more habitable oases in the eastern half of the country, include Samarqand, Namangan, Andijon, and Bukhara.

Uzbekistan is predominantly Uzbek in ethnic composition. According to the CIA World Factbook, Uzbeks comprise 80% of the total population. Other ethnic groups include Russian 5.5%, Tajik 5%, Kazakhs 3%, Karakalpak 2.5%, and Tatar 1.5%. The nation is 89% Muslim (mostly Sunni, with a 5% Shi'a minority) and 9% Eastern Orthodox. Uzbek is the only official state language. However, Russian is the de facto language for interethnic communication, including much day-to-day technical, scientific, governmental and business use. According to Ethnologue, 49% of the population of Uzbekistan can speak Russian.

Nearly the entire adult population can read and write. Since gaining independence, Uzbekistan has embarked on a gradual and costly reform of its education system, which was based on the Soviet model, to bring it up to modern and internationally recognized standards. Among other changes, the government has introduced new curricula and textbooks, new teacher-training programs, and a multitiered degree system for higher education. The government has also opened new primary and secondary schools to serve the growing population of the country, as well as science and technology institutes to meet the needs of a developing nation. Schools play an integral role in the process of nation building. For example, textbooks now place a greater emphasis on Uzbek history and literature, and both the Arabic and Latin scripts are taught in schools.