Uzbekistan - Country information


		Uzbekistan	Population Government Economy Geography Communication Transportation

Population		Top of page

Inhabitants		Life expectancy
27,780,059 (July 2007 est.)		total population: 64.98 years male: 61.57 years female: 68.56 years (2007 est.)

Ethnic groups		Religions
Uzbek 80%, Russian 5.5%, Tajik 5%, Kazakh 3%, Karakalpak 2.5%, Tatar 1.5%, other 2.5% (1996 est.)		Muslim 88% (mostly Sunnis), Eastern Orthodox 9%, other 3%

Languages		Literacy
Uzbek 74.3%, Russian 14.2%, Tajik 4.4%, other 7.1%		definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 99.3% male: 99.6% female: 99% (2003 est.)

Government		Top of page

Government type		Capital
republic; authoritarian presidential rule, with little power outside the executive branch		Tashkent (Toshkent)

Independance		National day
1 September 1991 (from Soviet Union)		Independence Day, 1 September (1991)

Constitution		Legal system
adopted 8 December 1992		evolution of Soviet civil law; still lacks independent judicial system

Economy		Top of page

GDP (purchasing power parity)		Growth rate
$10.78 billion (2006 est.)		6.8% (2006 est.)

GDP per inhabitant		Unemployment rate
$2,000 (2006 est.)		3% officially by the Ministry of Labor, plus another 20% underemployed (2006)

Population below poverty line		Inflation rate
33% (2004 est.)		7.6% officially, but 38% based on analysis of consumer prices (2006)

Exports		Imports
$5.51 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.)		$3.99 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold		Currency
$2.986 billion (2006 est.)		Uzbekistani soum (UZS)

Military expenditures
2% (2005 est.)

Geography		Top of page

Location		Area
Central Asia, north of Afghanistan		447,400 sq km

Climate		Natural resources
mostly midlatitude desert, long, hot summers, mild winters; semiarid grassland in east		natural gas, petroleum, coal, gold, uranium, silver, copper, lead and zinc, tungsten, molybdenum

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