Tajikistan is a country in Asia, known for the Pamir Mountains and ancient Silk Road sites. It has a population of 10.8 million, making it the 89th largest country in the world. Its capital is Dushanbe. Tajikistan has a developing economy with growing hydropower sector.
* As of 6/9/2025
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Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and China. Over 90% of the country is covered with mountains.
Most of the people in Tajikistan belong to the Persian-speaking Tajik group (79.9%), but there are large populations of Uzbeks (15.3%) and Russians (1%), whose numbers are falling due to emigration. Ethnic Russians accounted for 7.6% of the population in 1989, which has now fallen to 1% after Tajikistan’s civil war from 1992 to 1997. The Pamiris of Badakhshan (a region in southeastern Tajikistan and northeastern Afghanistan) are considered a part of the Tajiks. (All citizens of the country are called Tajiks, however.)
The Yaghnobi people live in the mountainous north Tajikistan and number about 25,000. Forced migration in the 20th century reduced their population dramatically.
The official language is Tajik, but Russian is also frequently used. Tajikistan has a very high poverty rate yet it has a high literacy rate because it kept the Soviet system of free education. About 99.5% of the population can read and right.
The area that is now Tajikistan has been largely Islamic since the Arabs brought the religion to the region in the 7th century, and it has very much woven its way into the country’s culture. 96% of the population practices the religion, 90.4% of which are Sunni, and 5.6% are Shia. Russian Orthodox is the next most practiced religion, claiming 2.6% of the population. The remaining numbers are either irreligious or some other religion.
Tajikistan struggles with an underdeveloped health care system and a high poverty rate. The life expectancy at birth is about 66 years old today, while the infant mortality rate is 37 per 1,000. Tajikistan is also the only country in the world where polio is on the rise, with 458 confirmed cases in 2010 from 0 in 2008.
Bukharan Jews had lived in the region since the 2nd century BC, but there are virtually none remaining now. The German population in the country was nearly 39,000 in 1979, but it has nearly vanished to to emigration to Germany since the collapse of the Soviet Union. There are about 1 million Tajiks working abroad, primarily in Russia, while 70% of the female population lives in villages.