Population of Uzbekistan

The population of Uzbekistan, estimated in 2013 about 30 million, is the largest of the Central Asian republics, comprising more than 40 percent of their total population. Growing at a rapid rate, the population is split by ethnic and regional differences. Relative to the former Soviet Union as a whole, Uzbekistan is still largely rural: roughly 60 percent of Uzbekistan's population lives in rural areas. The capital city is Tashkent, whose 2013 population was estimated at about 2, 5 million people. Other major cities are Samarqand (population 600,000), Namangan (500,000), Andijon (400,000), Bukhoro (330,000), Farghona (300,000), and Quqon (220,000).

The population of Uzbekistan is exceedingly young. In the early 1990s, about half the population was under nineteen years of age.

The growth of Uzbekistan's population was in some part due to in-migration from other parts of the former Soviet Union. Several waves of Russian and Slavic in-migrants arrived at various times in response to the industrialization of Uzbekistan in the early part of the Soviet period, following the evacuations of European Russia during World War II, and in the late 1960s to help reconstruct Tashkent after the 1966 earthquake. At various other times, non-Uzbeks arrived simply to take advantage of opportunities they perceived in Central Asia. Recently, however, Uzbekistan has begun to witness a net emigration of its European population. The population of Uzbekistan involves more than 100 nations: Uzbeks, Tajiks, Russians, Kazakhs, Tatars, Kyrgyz, Koreans, Germans, Jews and others.