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Uzbekistan

UZ

Central Asia

Uzbekistan is home to 11 documented ethnic groups in Central Asia — led by Uzbek (~84%), Tajik Uzbekistan (~5%), Kazakh Uzbekistan (~3%), Karakalpak (~2%). This page blends their phenotype and demographic data into one weighted reference: skin tone, facial features, hair texture and build, drawn from published census and ancestry sources.

Demographic Composition

Composition weights are derived from self-identification in published census and demographic surveys. Each row links to the source ethnic-group atlas page.

Ethnic groupWeightSource
UzbekUzbek83.8%State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Statistics 2017 demographic estimates plus 2022 update; self-identified Uzbek (~83.8%, ~28.4M of ~34M total population). Uzbekistan has not conducted a comprehensive census since 1989 — the 2017 demographic-statistics estimates and 2022 partial-census update are the canonical data sources
Tajik UzbekistanTajik Uzbekistan4.8%Uzbekistan demographic statistics 2017-2022, self-identified Tajik (~4.8%, ~1.6M+); concentrated in Samarkand, Bukhara, and Surxondaryo regions in southern Uzbekistan. Cross-border population shared with Tajikistan; the Bukharan and Samarkand Tajik communities are historically the dominant urban populations of these famed Silk Road cities, with continuing Tajik (Iranian-language) cultural identity despite Soviet-era and post-Soviet Uzbekization pressures
Kazakh UzbekistanKazakh Uzbekistan2.5%Uzbekistan demographic statistics 2017-2022, self-identified Kazakh (~2.5%, ~810,000); concentrated in Karakalpakstan and northern Uzbekistan along the Kazakh border. Cross-border population
KarakalpakKarakalpak2.2%Uzbekistan demographic statistics 2017-2022, self-identified Karakalpak (~2.2%, ~750,000); concentrated in the Republic of Karakalpakstan (an autonomous republic within Uzbekistan covering the Aral Sea basin and the lower Amu Darya region). The Karakalpak language is part of the Kipchak Turkic family (closely related to Kazakh and Nogai), with substantial linguistic and cultural distinctness from Uzbek (which is a Karluk Turkic language)
Russian UzbekistanRussian Uzbekistan2.2%Uzbekistan demographic statistics 2017-2022, self-identified Russian (~2.2%, ~750,000); declined from ~8.3% in 1989 through substantial post-1991 emigration to Russia. Concentrated in Tashkent and other major cities, predominantly engaged in industrial and educational sectors
Other UzbekistanOther Uzbekistan1.8%Uzbekistan demographic statistics 2017-2022, residual including Bashkir, Bukharian Jewish (now ~1,000-2,000 in Uzbekistan after substantial 1990s emigration to Israel and the United States, predominantly the Tashkent and Bukhara historic communities), Jewish (predominantly Ashkenazi), Armenian, Azerbaijani, Iranian (the Iranis of Bukhara and Samarkand), Lithuanian, Polish, Greek, Bulgarian, Belarusian, Mordvin, Chuvash, Meskhetian Turkish, Romani-Lyuli, plus other groups
Kyrgyz UzbekistanKyrgyz Uzbekistan0.9%Uzbekistan demographic statistics 2017-2022, self-identified Kyrgyz (~0.9%, ~310,000); concentrated in Andijan, Namangan, and Fergana regions in the densely-populated Fergana Valley along the Kyrgyz border. Cross-border population
Turkmen UzbekistanTurkmen Uzbekistan0.6%Uzbekistan demographic statistics 2017-2022, self-identified Turkmen (~0.6%, ~220,000); concentrated in Karakalpakstan and Khorezm regions in northwestern Uzbekistan along the Turkmen border. Cross-border population
Tatar UzbekistanTatar Uzbekistan0.5%Uzbekistan demographic statistics 2017-2022, self-identified Tatar (~0.5%, ~190,000); descendants of Volga Tatar and Crimean Tatar populations resettled to Uzbekistan during 19th-20th c. Russian and Soviet-era population movements. The Crimean Tatar deportation of 1944 substantially expanded the community
Korean UzbekistanKorean Uzbekistan0.5%Uzbekistan demographic statistics 2017-2022, self-identified Korean (~0.5%, ~175,000); the Koryo-saram community, descendants of the ethnic Korean population deported from the Russian Far East to Uzbekistan in 1937 under Stalin's Resettlement of the Koreans. Concentrated in the Tashkent region. The Uzbekistan Koryo-saram is the second-largest after the Kazakhstan Koryo-saram
Ukrainian UzbekistanUkrainian Uzbekistan0.2%Uzbekistan demographic statistics 2017-2022, self-identified Ukrainian (~0.2%, ~75,000); declined substantially from ~0.9% in 1989 through emigration

Uzbekistan Phenotype Profile

Uzbekistan's population is dominated by Uzbeks (~84% per 2017-2022 demographic estimates) with substantial Tajik (~4.8%, concentrated in Samarkand and Bukhara), Kazakh (~2.5%), Russian (~2.2%, declined substantially from 1989), Karakalpak (~2.2%, concentrated in the autonomous Karakalpakstan republic), Kyrgyz (~0.9%), Turkmen (~0.6%), Korean (~0.5% Koryo-saram), Tatar (~0.5%), and smaller minority communities. The country's demographic structure reflects the consolidation of pre-Russian-imperial Central Asian populations in the historically Persianate / Turkic-Persian-cultural-fusion region of Mawarannahr (Transoxiana), the 19th-c. Russian imperial conquest and the subsequent population movements, the 1937 deportation of Koreans, the 1944 deportation of Crimean Tatars and Meskhetian Turks, the 1941 deportation of Russian-Germans, and the post-1991 demographic re-shifting through Russian-Ukrainian-German-Jewish emigration to homelands.

Genome-wide studies (Yunusbayev et al. 2015) place average Uzbek ancestry at approximately 50-60% West Eurasian (predominantly Iranian source-population) and 40-50% East Asian (Mongol-Turkic source-population) — making Uzbeks the most West-Eurasian-shifted of the major Central Asian Turkic populations. Skin tone across the broader Uzbek population spans Fitzpatrick II-IV with III the modal value — somewhat lighter than Kazakh and Kyrgyz populations. Hair is most often straight to wavy (Andre Walker 1A-2B) and predominantly black to dark brown with some lighter variants. Eye color is predominantly brown with elevated frequencies of hazel, green, and rarely blue variants. Facial features show characteristic Central Asian Iranian-Turkic-admixed features (rounder eye shapes than Kazakh, taller-and-narrower nasal bridges, fuller lips, oval face shapes). Build is intermediate; adult Uzbek male mean stature is approximately 172 cm in 2010s-2020s cohorts. Within-population variance is moderate; the various ethnic-minority sub-populations contribute additional phenotype-distribution breadth.

A descriptive view, not a claim about individuals

This page shows a weighted aggregate of phenotype observations across the Uzbekistan population, based on demographic composition from published census and ancestry sources. Phenotypes within any country are far more varied than the aggregate suggests; this is a descriptive reference, not a deterministic claim about any individual. For source-level detail on individual ethnic groups, see the constituent atlas pages linked below.

Methodology Notes

Composition weights are derived from the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Statistics 2017 demographic estimates plus 2022 partial-census update. Uzbekistan has not conducted a comprehensive census since 1989 — the methodological gap means that contemporary demographic estimates are less reliable than the comprehensive census-based data of neighboring states. Genome-wide ancestry context (Yunusbayev et al. 2015) supports phenotype interpretation. Caveats: (1) the absence of a recent comprehensive census means the composition weights are estimates rather than direct enumeration; (2) the Tajik-Uzbek boundary is socially and politically sensitive — the 4.8% Tajik share likely undercounts the genealogical-Tajik population in Samarkand and Bukhara, where many residents speak Tajik at home but self-identify as Uzbek under Uzbekization pressures; (3) the post-1991 Russian-Ukrainian-German emigration has shifted demographics substantially; (4) the historical Bukharian Jewish community has shrunk by approximately 95% since the 1990s through emigration to Israel and the United States; (5) the various Stalin-era deportee communities (Crimean Tatar, Meskhetian Turk, etc.) have continued to migrate over the post-1991 period as opportunities for return to homelands have opened.

See full project methodology →

Primary Sources

  1. 1.State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Statistics. Demographic Statistics 2017-2022. Tashkent: Uzbekstat; 2022.
  2. 2.Yunusbayev B, Metspalu M, Metspalu E, et al. The genetic legacy of the expansion of Turkic-speaking nomads across Eurasia. PLoS Genet. 2015;11(4):e1005068. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1005068
  3. 3.Khalid A. Making Uzbekistan: Nation, Empire, and Revolution in the Early USSR. Ithaca: Cornell University Press; 2015.
  4. 4.Cooper RW. Bukhara: Conservation and Development of an Islamic Heritage City. Architectural Press; 2002.
  5. 5.Levin Z. Bukharan Jews and the Dynamics of Global Judaism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press; 2015.

Other countries in Central Asia

Aggregate phenotype references for neighbouring Central Asia nations, weighted by demographic composition.

Browse all Central Asiaethnic groups & countries →