Tajikistan is a country located in Central Asia. It has an area of 143,100 square kilometers and a population of approximately 8.5 million people. The ethnic composition of Tajikistan is largely Tajik (84%), with minorities such as Uzbeks, Russians and Kyrgyz making up the remaining 16%. The majority of the population are adherents to Islam, with around 86% following Sunni Islam and 12% following Shia Islam. Education is compulsory for children up to the age of 15 and the literacy rate is estimated to be around 99%. The official language is Tajik but there are also many other languages spoken throughout the country such as Uzbek, Russian and Kyrgyz. The capital city Dushanbe has an estimated population of over 830,000 people making it one of the largest cities in Tajikistan. Check hyperrestaurant to learn more about Tajikistan in 2009.
Social conditions
After independence in 1991, Tajikistan suffered a fatal civil war (1992-93) which radically deteriorated social conditions. In particular, Gorno-Badachshan, which was in principle isolated, was affected, and only occasional relief services with supplies were reached. Nearly 50,000 people were killed in the war and at least 700,000, one-third of the population, were forced into exile to the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan, among others. In June 1997, a peace agreement was concluded, but only in the early 2000s could talk of normalization, even if political violence still exists. Many refugees have returned. Most of those who left the country were most educated.
Economy
| Inflation rate | 7.30% |
| Unemployment rate | 2.4% |
| Gross domestic product (GDP) | $ 28,430,000,000 |
| GDP growth rate | 7.10% |
| GDP per capita | $ 3,200 |
| GDP by sector | |
| Agriculture | 28.60% |
| Industry | 25.50% |
| Service | 45.90% |
| State budget | |
| Revenue | 519.3 million |
| Expenditure | 612.4 million |
| Proportion of the population below the national poverty line | 35.6% |
| Distribution of household income | |
| Top 10% | 25.2% |
| Lower 10% | 3.2% |
| Industrial production growth rate | 0.80% |
| Investment volume | 5% of GDP |
| National debt | 50.40% of GDP |
| Foreign exchange reserves | $ 642,400,000 |
| Tourism | 2014 |
| Number of visitors | 213,000 |
| Revenue | $ 107,000,000 |
Tajikistan is the least developed country in Central Asia. Visit AbbreviationFinder to see the definitions of TJK and acronym for Tajikistan. The country is in deep poverty: about 25 percent of the population is estimated to live in poverty (below US $ 2 / day), and unemployment is just over 11 percent (2012). Health care has been depleted, and growing drug trafficking has contributed to further social problems. The country receives assistance from a number of foreign donors including the United States.
As inspiration for Denmark, in January 2016, the authorities conducted an «anti-radicalization campaign». Police in the Khatlon region shaved the beard of approx. 13,000 men and closed 160 stores selling hijabs. Beard and hijab were declared “incompatible with Tajikistan’s secular culture”.
At least 170 people were tried in 2016 and sentenced to prison for their alleged participation in armed clashes between government forces and armed groups in Dushanbe in September 2015. Clashes made by the authorities as a coup attempt led by former Defense Minister Abdukhalim Nazarzoda. Check to see Tajikistan population.
A referendum in May 2016, with 96.6% of the vote, passed a series of far-reaching amendments to the constitution. The changes removed the restrictions on how many times a president could be elected to office. President Rahmon could therefore stand for a new term in 2020. At the same time, parties based on faith (ie Islam) or nationality were banned. The ban on Tajikistan’s Islamic Renaissance Party 9 months earlier thus also had a legal basis to stand on.
In November, it was made criminal to “offend the leader of the nation”.
The EU and the US continued their practice of not criticizing the situation in the country.
Economic conditions
The Tajik economy is still largely state-run, or at least collective. Already among the poorest in the USSR, it has gone through a period of profound crisis. However, in recent years there are signs of recovery and GDP, for the first time since 1991, recorded an increase (+ 1.7 % and + 4 % respectively in 1997 and 1998, against – 12, 4 % in 1995 and – 4.4 % in 1996). Moreover, it should be remembered that these results are purely indicative, as their overall value is certainly underestimated. In fact, parallel markets are not taken into account, including the illegal export of a large part of the production of cotton and aluminum, which represent the two best-selling products. On the other hand, the introduction of the Tajik ruble, which in 1995 replaced the previous currency unit, the Russian ruble, and some timid structural reforms have begun to have positive effects on the economy, including the reduction of the rate of inflation, which went from over 2000 % in 1993 to 635 % in 1995 and 40.5 % in1996, but then recovered slightly in 1997. However, incentives for foreign investors are unsuccessful, for whom political instability is a strong deterrent.
Agriculture remains the main economic activity (in fact, over half of the active population is dedicated to it), even if only a small part (6 %) of the Tajik territory, given the morphological conditions, is cultivated: very low yields, wheat and other cereals (whose production however reaches just 50 % of the internal needs), vegetables and cotton; the latter remains the main agricultural crop, despite a progressive decline in production, which has passed from the 800s. 000 t from the late 1980s to the current 350. 000 Tajikistan The pastures are more extensive, occupying a quarter of the country’s surface and providing nourishment to sheep (sheep karakul), goats and cattle (respectively 1,600. 000, 620. 000 and 1,000. 000 in 1998), while most of the territory (69, 2 %), poor even in forests, is uncultivated or otherwise unproductive.
The subsoil, although very rich, is little exploited due to the backwardness of extraction technologies; on the contrary, the construction of some power plants allowed the use, even if partial, of the extraordinary hydroelectric wealth of the Tajikistan, which in the early nineties was able to satisfy over 75 % of the country’s energy demand. Modest resources of fossil fuels and small deposits of various metallic minerals are exploited by local industries, which however were heavily affected by the years of civil war: between 1990 and 1995 the production of the secondary sector decreased by 60 %; so the Tursunzade aluminum factory in 1995 did not provide that200. 000 t of metal, that is half of its production capacity. In the field of light industry, cotton spinning and carpet making, as well as food processing, are of some importance.