Kyrgyzstan
Name
| Official name | Kyrgyz Republic — Kyrgyz Respublikasy (Кыргыз Республикасы); Kyrgyzskaya Respublika (Кыргызская Республика); Kyrgyzstan in common use |
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| Former names | The Kara-Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast (1924–25); the Kirghiz ASSR (1926–36); the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic (1936–91); the Republic of Kyrgyzstan (1991–93) |
| Demonym | Kyrgyz — for the people; Kyrgyzstani for the citizens |
| Meaning of the name | "The land of the Kyrgyz" — the name read as kyrk, "forty," for the forty tribes of Manas, or as "imperishable"; -stan the Persian country |
| Motto | None official |
Quick facts
| Capital | Bishkek — Pishpek to 1926, Frunze to 1991; the capital since 1924; about 1.1 million |
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| Largest cities | Bishkek; Osh, about 350,000, the southern capital; Jalal-Abad; Karakol; Tokmok; Kara-Balta; Uzgen; Naryn; Talas |
| Official languages | Kyrgyz, the state language, a Turkic tongue in Cyrillic; Russian, the official language of the state and the cities; Uzbek in the south; English rising in the schools |
| Currency | Som — ISO code KGS, с; 100 tyiyn; about 87 to the U.S. dollar; introduced 10 May 1993 |
| Time zone | Kyrgyzstan Time, UTC+6, all year |
| Calling code | +996 |
| Internet domain | .kg |
| ISO 3166 codes | KG · KGZ · 417 |
| Vehicle registration code | KG |
| Driving side | Right |
| Electricity | 220 V, 50 Hz; plug types C and F |
| Independence | 31 August 1991, from the Soviet Union — Askar Akayev the first president |
| National days | 31 August, Independence Day; 21–23 March, Nooruz; 5 May, Constitution Day; 9 May, Victory Day; 7 April, the Day of the People's April Revolution of 2010; 7–8 November, the Days of History and Memory of the Ancestors; the Muslim feasts; 1 January and 7 January, Orthodox Christmas |
| Constitution | 5 May 2021 — the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic approved by the referendum of 11 April 2021 with 79%, the presidential system restored in place of the parliamentary one of 2010; the president head of state and government for two five-year terms; the People's Kurultai of 700; the parliament cut from 120 to 90; the fifth text since 1993 |
| Population | About 7.0 million at the census of 2022; about 7.3 million (National Statistical Committee, 2025 est.) |
| Area | 199,951 km² (77,202 sq mi) — land 191,801 km², water 8,150 km², Issyk-Kul most of it; landlocked |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | A red field — the banner of Manas — bearing a golden sun of forty rays for the forty tribes, with the tunduk, the crown of the yurt, at its center, its three crossed pairs of poles the view of the sky from a Kyrgyz home; adopted 3 March 1992, the rays straightened and the sun reset by the law of December 2023.Flag of Kyrgyzstan |
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| National emblem | A white gyrfalcon with spread wings over Issyk-Kul and the peaks of the Tian Shan under a rising sun, ringed by wheat and cotton, with the name of the republic — adopted 2 June 1994, redrawn 2016 |
| National anthem | "Kyrgyz Respublikasynyn Mamlekettik Gimni" ("National Anthem of the Kyrgyz Republic") — words by Jalil Sadykov and Shabdanbek Kuluev, music by Nasyr Davlesov and Kalyi Moldobasanov; adopted 18 December 1992 |
| National colors | Red and gold |
| National animal | The snow leopard — the ilbirs of the Tian Shan, about 350 left, the emblem of Bishkek and the national sport federations; the golden eagle of the berkutchi, the eagle hunters; the Kyrgyz horse; widely cited |
| National flower | The tulip of the mountains, the edelweiss and the wild apple; widely cited, none declared |
| The yurt | The boz üy — the felt house of the nomads whose crown is on the flag; the art of the yurt on UNESCO's intangible list since 2014 with Kazakhstan; the ala-kiyiz and shyrdak felt carpets listed in 2012 |
| The Manas epic | The Epic of Manas — the story of the hero who united the forty tribes, half a million lines in its longest telling, twenty times the Iliad and the Odyssey together, recited from memory by the manaschi; on UNESCO's list since 2013; the 1,000th anniversary kept in 1995 |
| National instrument | The komuz — the three-stringed lute of the akyns; the kyl-kyyak; the temir-komuz jaw harp |
| National dish | Beshbarmak — "five fingers," the boiled meat and noodles of the feast; kuurdak; the laghman of the south; kymyz, the fermented mare's milk; the borsok; widely cited |
| Symbol status | The flag, emblem and anthem are fixed by the laws of 1992–94; the yurt, the felt and the epic by UNESCO listing; the animal, flower, instrument and dishes widely cited |
Geography
| Location | Central Asia — landlocked in the Tian Shan; Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, China to the east; the Fergana Valley shared with the two neighbors |
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| Land borders | 4,573 km (2,841 mi) with four countries — Uzbekistan 1,314, Kazakhstan 1,212, China 1,063, Tajikistan 984; the Tajik line settled by the treaty of 13 March 2025 after the clashes of 2021 and 2022; the Uzbek line settled in 2023; the enclaves of Sokh and Shakhimardan within it |
| Coastline | None — landlocked, and the farthest from any ocean of nearly any country |
| Highest point | Jengish Chokusu — Victory Peak — 7,439 m (24,406 ft), on the Chinese border |
| Lowest point | The Kara-Darya at the Uzbek border, 132 m (433 ft) |
| Mean elevation | 2,988 m (9,803 ft) — about 90% of the land above 1,500 m |
| Issyk-Kul | The "warm lake" of the northeast — 6,236 km², 182 km long, 668 m deep, at 1,607 m; the second-largest mountain lake in the world after Titicaca and the seventh-deepest lake on earth, salt enough never to freeze; the resorts of Cholpon-Ata and the sanatoriums; the World Nomad Games born on its shore; a biosphere reserve |
| Rivers and glaciers | The Naryn, 807 km, the longest, through the Toktogul reservoir to the Syr Darya, the water of the Fergana and the cotton of the neighbors; the Chüy of Bishkek; the Talas; the Kara-Darya; the Sary-Jaz to China; some 8,000 glaciers, the Inylchek of 60 km among the longest outside the poles, all retreating |
| Terrain | The Tian Shan across the whole east and center with the Alay in the south — the Kyrgyz Ala-Too above Bishkek, the Ferghana range, the Pamir-Alay of the Lenin Peak at 7,134 m; the valleys of Chüy, Talas and Fergana where the people live; the Son-Kul and Chatyr-Kul highland lakes; the walnut forests of Arslanbob, the largest natural walnut forest on earth |
| Climate | Continental — the valleys with hot summers and cold winters, the mountains with permanent snow; the Issyk-Kul basin mild; about 350 mm of rain in the valleys, 1,000 in the mountains |
| Natural hazards | Earthquakes — the Tian Shan among the most active zones on earth; the mudflows and avalanches of the passes; the glacial lake floods; the drought and the water quarrels of the region; the uranium tailings of Mailuu-Suu |
| Natural resources | Gold — the Kumtor mine at 4,000 m, among the largest in Central Asia; coal; the hydropower of the Naryn, four-fifths of the electricity, the Kambarata-1 dam of the plans; uranium of the Soviet past; antimony, mercury, rare earths; the pastures |
| Land use | Agricultural land about 55%, most of it pasture, the jailoo of the summer herds; forest about 5% |
| National parks | 13 — Ala Archa above Bishkek, 1976, the first; Sary-Chelek, the lake and the reserve of 1959; Besh-Tash; Kara-Shoro; Chong-Kemin; the Sarychat-Ertash reserve of the snow leopards; Karakol |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 3 — Sulaiman-Too, the sacred mountain of Osh (2009), the country's first; the Silk Roads Chang'an–Tianshan corridor (2014, shared); the Western Tien-Shan (2016, shared with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan); the Manas epic, the yurt, the felt, the kok-boru and the aitysh on the intangible list |
| Administrative divisions | 7 regions — Chüy, Issyk-Kul, Naryn, Talas, Jalal-Abad, Osh and Batken, of 1999 — and the two cities of Bishkek and Osh; the 2024 reform of the districts and the aiyl aimaks |
People
| Population | About 7.0 million (census of 2022); about 7.3 million (2025 est.) |
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| Population density | About 37 per km² (95 per sq mi) — the valleys crowded, the mountains empty |
| Population growth | About 1.8% a year — the highest in the former Soviet Union with Tajikistan |
| Median age | About 27 years |
| Life expectancy | About 72 years |
| Fertility rate | About 2.8 births per woman |
| Urban population | About 38% |
| Adult literacy | About 100% |
| Ethnic groups | Kyrgyz about 74%; Uzbek about 15%, in Osh, Jalal-Abad and the Fergana south; Russian about 5%, from 22% in 1989; Dungan, Uyghur, Tajik, Kazakh, Turk, Ukrainian, Korean, German (census of 2022) |
| Languages | Kyrgyz by about 75% as mother tongue and the state's language of record since 2023; Russian by about half, the language of Bishkek and of the migrants' work; Uzbek by the Uzbeks; Dungan, Uyghur; the shift to Kyrgyz in the schools and the signs |
| Religion | Muslim about 90%, Sunni of the Hanafi school, the Kyrgyz nomads' Islam mixed with Tengrism, the Uzbeks' more observant; Russian Orthodox about 7%; the mosques built with Gulf money since 1991; the secular state |
| Human Development Index | 0.720 (2023 data, 2025 report) — high; about 117th of 193 |
| The migrants | About a million Kyrgyz citizens working in Russia, with Kazakhstan, Turkey, Korea and the Gulf — the remittances about US$3 billion a year, about 20–30% of GDP, among the highest shares in the world; the Russian crackdowns after the Crocus attack of 2024; the EAEU's free labor the reason for membership |
| Sport | The nomad games — kok-boru, the goat-carcass polo, at the World Nomad Games founded at Cholpon-Ata in 2014; wrestling — the Olympic medals of Aisuluu Tynybekova, the first woman, and the freestyle and Greco-Roman men; weightlifting; the falconry; the football league |
| Diaspora | About 700,000 Kyrgyz in China's Xinjiang, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan's Pamirs beyond the migrants; the Fergana Kyrgyz |
Government
| Form of government | Unitary presidential republic under the Constitution of 2021 — the president head of state and government, elected for five years, twice, appointing the cabinet through its chairman; the Jogorku Kenesh of 90; the People's Kurultai of 700 delegates as a consultative assembly; the Constitutional Court |
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| President | Sadyr Japarov (independent, Mekenchil before), since 28 January 2021 — the sixth; a deputy of the 2000s, jailed in 2017 for the kidnapping of a governor in a protest of 2013, freed from prison on 6 October 2020 by the crowds of the revolution over the rigged election, prime minister and acting president within the week, and elected on 10 January 2021 with 79.2% on a turnout of 39%; born 6 December 1968 at Keng-Suu on Issyk-Kul; the nationalist populist of the Kumtor nationalization and the new flag; his second term sought in 2027 |
| Chairman of the Cabinet | Adylbek Kasymaliev (independent), since 27 February 2025 — the head of the Cabinet of Ministers and the presidential administration, the finance minister of the 2010s, born 1961; after Akylbek Japarov, no relation, of 2021–25 |
| The strongman beside him | Kamchybek Tashiev, the chairman of the State Committee for National Security since 2020 and the president's partner since the Mekenchil party — the arrests, the anti-corruption campaign and the confiscations of the "kusturizatsiya," the shaking-out of the oligarchs; the closure of Kloop and the pressure on Azattyk and Temirov Live the media findings |
| The 2025 election | The snap election of 30 November 2025 — the parliament having voted on 25 September to dissolve itself to keep the vote clear of the presidential one — for the 90 seats of the Jogorku Kenesh, the first by single-member districts alone since the reform of June 2025: 30 districts of three seats each, at least one for a woman; the candidates standing as independents and loyal to the president taking more than 80% of the seats by the analysts' count, the Social Democrats disqualified; turnout under 37%; the OSCE finding the vote "efficiently run" with the crackdown on independent media limiting the choice, Eurasianet finding little sign of fraud; Nurlanbek Turgunbek uulu re-elected Speaker; the detentions of opposition figures the week before over an alleged coup plot, as Putin came to the CSTO summit in Bishkek |
| Parliament | The Jogorku Kenesh — the Supreme Council — 90 deputies elected for five years by single-member districts since 2025, from party lists before; the 120 of 2010–21; the People's Kurultai of 700 beside it since 2022 |
| The next election | The presidential election due 27 January 2027 — Japarov standing for a second term; an earlier date proposed in February 2026 |
| The three revolutions | The Tulip Revolution of 24 March 2005 that drove out Askar Akayev, the president since 1990; the revolution of 7 April 2010 that drove out Kurmanbek Bakiyev with about 90 dead in Bishkek, followed by the Osh violence of June 2010 between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks with about 470 dead by the commission's count; the revolution of 5–6 October 2020 over the parliamentary election's vote-buying that drove out Sooronbay Jeenbekov and freed Japarov — the only country of Central Asia to have overthrown its rulers, three times |
| The border | The treaty with Tajikistan signed at Bishkek on 13 March 2025 by Japarov and Rahmon, settling the 984 km line after thirty years — the clashes of April 2021 with 55 dead and of September 2022 with about 100, the worst between two post-Soviet states outside Ukraine and the Caucasus; the Uzbek border settled in 2023 with the Kempir-Abad reservoir handed to Tashkent, the arrests of its opponents; the enclaves of Sokh, Shakhimardan and Vorukh |
| Legal system | Civil law on the Russian model; the Constitutional Court restored in 2021; the Supreme Court; the "foreign representatives" law of 2024 on the Russian pattern and the "false information" law of 2021; the death penalty abolished 2007 |
| Regions | 7 regions and 2 cities under akims appointed by the president; the local keneshes elected; the 2024 reform of the aiyl aimaks |
| The powers | Russia the ally and the employer — the CSTO, the Eurasian Union, the Kant air base of 2003; China the creditor and the builder — the railway, the roads, the Belt and Road, about 40% of the external debt; the American Manas air base of 2001–14 closed at Moscow's wish; Turkey and the Turkic States; the Gulf; the sanctions traffic to Russia the Western complaint |
| United Nations | Member since 2 March 1992; the mountain resolutions of the General Assembly, the International Year of Mountains of 2002 its initiative |
| Memberships | The Commonwealth of Independent States; the Collective Security Treaty Organization; the Eurasian Economic Union since 2015; the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a founder in 2001; the Organization of Turkic States; the OSCE; the OIC; the WTO since 1998, the first of the former Soviet Union |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$18 billion (2025, IMF) — among the smallest of the former Soviet republics |
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| GDP per capita | About US$2,500 (2025) |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$8,000 (2025) |
| GDP growth | About 9% in 2024 and 2025 by the official count — the re-exports to Russia, the construction and the gold; inflation about 5% |
| Economy by sector | Services about 50%, industry about 30% — gold most of it — agriculture about 12% |
| Currency | Som (KGS) |
| Gold | Kumtor — the mine at 4,000 m in the Tian Shan, opened by the Canadians of Centerra in 1997, about a tenth of the economy and half the exports; seized by the state in May 2021 and settled in 2022 with Centerra's exit; the smaller mines of Jerooy and the Chinese ventures |
| Remittances | About US$3 billion a year — a fifth to a third of GDP, from the million in Russia; among the most remittance-dependent economies on earth with Tajikistan and Nepal |
| Re-exports | The bazaars of Dordoi in Bishkek and Kara-Suu in Osh — the Chinese goods relabeled for Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Russia, the largest markets of Central Asia; the boom of 2022–25 in the goods bound for sanctioned Russia, the cars and the electronics, and the Western sanctions on the Kyrgyz banks and firms that followed |
| Agriculture | The herds of the jailoo — sheep, horses, cattle and yaks; the walnuts of Arslanbob; the apricots and cotton of the south; the potatoes and wheat of the valleys; the honey |
| Energy | Hydropower on the Naryn, four-fifths of the electricity — Toktogul, 1,200 MW, its reservoir low in the dry years and the winter blackouts; the Kambarata-1 dam of 1,860 MW planned since the Soviets with the World Bank's study of 2024; the coal of Kara-Keche; the Russian gas of Gazprom, which bought the grid in 2014 |
| Public finances | Public debt about 45% of GDP, about 40% of the external debt owed to China's Exim Bank; the budget about US$4 billion; the confiscated assets of the anti-corruption drive claimed at US$1 billion |
| Income classification | Lower-middle income (World Bank) |
Transport & infrastructure
| Main airports | Manas International Airport, 25 km from Bishkek — about 5 million passengers, the American transit base of 2001–14 beside it; Osh International; Issyk-Kul at Tamchy; Batken |
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| Airlines | Air Manas, Aero Nomad, TezJet — all on the EU's blacklist with every Kyrgyz carrier since 2006; Aeroflot, Turkish, Pegasus and the Gulf carriers for the connections |
| Ports | None — landlocked; the trucks to the Chinese passes of Torugart and Irkeshtam and to Kazakhstan |
| Railways | About 420 km (260 mi) in two unconnected pieces of the Russian gauge — the northern line from Bishkek to Balykchy on Issyk-Kul and to Kazakhstan, the southern from Osh and Jalal-Abad into Uzbekistan; the China–Kyrgyzstan–Uzbekistan railway of 486 km through the Torugart pass, begun 27 December 2024 for about US$5 billion, the first link between north and south and to China |
| Roads | About 34,000 km (21,000 mi); the Bishkek–Osh highway of 672 km over the Töö-Ashuu and Ala-Bel passes at 3,000 m, the country's spine, 12 hours in the snow; the North–South alternative road built by China; the roads of the Chinese loans; the Pamir Highway from Osh |
| The passes | Torugart at 3,752 m and Irkeshtam to Kashgar; the Töö-Ashuu tunnel of 1962; the jailoo tracks of the herders |
History in dates
| c. 200 BC | The Kyrgyz first named in the Chinese chronicles, on the upper Yenisei |
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| 840 | The Kyrgyz Khaganate destroys the Uyghur empire |
| 751 | The Battle of Talas — Arabs and Chinese on the Talas River |
| c. 10th century | The Karakhanids; Burana Tower at Balasagun |
| 1218 | The Mongols; the Kyrgyz move to the Tian Shan by the 1500s |
| 1876 | The Khokand Khanate annexed by Russia — the Kyrgyz within the empire |
| 1916 | The Urkun — the revolt against conscription, some 100,000 Kyrgyz dead in the flight to China |
| 1924 | The Kara-Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast, 14 October |
| 1936 | The Kirghiz SSR, 5 December |
| 1990 | The Osh riots, June; Akayev president, 27 October |
| 1991 | Independence, 31 August |
| 1993 | The som, 10 May; the Kyrgyz Republic |
| 1995 | The Manas millennium |
| 2001 | The Manas air base for the Afghan war, December |
| 2005 | The Tulip Revolution, 24 March — Akayev flees |
| 2010 | The April Revolution, 7 April; the Osh violence, 10–14 June; the parliamentary constitution, 27 June |
| 2011 | Roza Otunbayeva hands power to Almazbek Atambayev, 1 December — the first peaceful transfer |
| 2014 | The World Nomad Games founded; Manas base closed, 11 June |
| 2020 | The election of 4 October annulled; Japarov freed, 6 October; Jeenbekov resigns, 15 October |
| 2021 | Japarov president, 28 January; the referendum, 11 April; Kumtor seized, 17 May; the Tajik clashes, 28 April |
| 2022 | The Batken war, 14–17 September |
| 2023 | The Uzbek border settled; the new flag, December |
| 2024 | The China railway begun, 27 December |
| 2025 | The Tajik treaty, 13 March; the snap election, 30 November |
| 2027 | The presidential election due, 27 January |
Records & firsts
| The longest epic in the world | Manas, half a million lines |
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| The second-largest mountain lake | Issyk-Kul, and it never freezes |
| Among the most mountainous countries | Nine-tenths above 1,500 m |
| The only Central Asian country to overthrow its rulers | Three times, 2005, 2010 and 2020 |
| The first currency to leave the ruble | The som, 1993 |
| The first of the former Soviet Union in the WTO | 1998 |
| The largest natural walnut forest | Arslanbob |
| Among the most remittance-dependent | A fifth to a third of GDP |
| The World Nomad Games | Founded at Cholpon-Ata, 2014 |
| The highest gold mine | Kumtor, at 4,000 m |
| The Torugart pass | 3,752 m to Kashgar |
| A sky on the flag | The tunduk of the yurt |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Kyrgyzstan?
The Kyrgyz Republic — Kyrgyz Respublikasy in Kyrgyz, Kyrgyzskaya Respublika in Russian — the name the state took in 1993, two years after independence from the Soviet Union on 31 August 1991; Kyrgyzstan, "the land of the Kyrgyz," is the name in common use and on this page. The Kyrgyz are a Turkic people whose name the tradition reads as kyrk, forty, for the forty tribes of the epic hero Manas, the forty rays of the sun on the flag; under the Soviets the republic was Kirghizia.
What is the capital of Kyrgyzstan?
Bishkek, in the Chüy Valley at the foot of the Kyrgyz Ala-Too range in the north, 25 km from the Kazakh border — the Khokand fort of Pishpek of 1825, the Russian town of 1878, Frunze from 1926 to 1991 for the Bolshevik general born there, and Bishkek since; about 1.1 million people in a grid of Soviet boulevards and oaks with the mountains at the end of every street. Osh in the Fergana Valley of the south, 3,000 years old under the sacred mountain of Sulaiman-Too, is the second city and the "southern capital"; Jalal-Abad, Karakol on Issyk-Kul and Tokmok follow.
How big is Kyrgyzstan, and how many people live there?
About 199,951 km² (77,202 sq mi) — a little smaller than South Dakota, about the size of Senegal — a landlocked country of the Tian Shan between Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and China, nine-tenths of it mountain, at an average height of 2,750 m. The census of 2022 counted about 7.0 million people; the National Statistical Committee estimates about 7.3 million for 2025, the Kyrgyz about three-quarters and the Uzbeks of the south about 15 percent, with a million citizens working in Russia.
What are the highest and lowest points of Kyrgyzstan?
Jengish Chokusu — Victory Peak, Pik Pobedy — 7,439 m (24,406 ft), on the Chinese border in the central Tian Shan, the highest point of the range and the northernmost peak of 7,400 m on earth, with Khan Tengri beside it; and the Kara-Darya at the Uzbek border in the Fergana Valley, 132 m (433 ft). Issyk-Kul, "the warm lake," 6,236 km² at 1,607 m, is the second-largest mountain lake in the world after Titicaca and never freezes; the Naryn drains the mountains to the Syr Darya through the dams of Toktogul; the Inylchek glacier of 60 km is among the longest outside the poles.
What currency does Kyrgyzstan use?
The som (ISO code KGS, с), of 100 tyiyn, introduced on 10 May 1993 as the first currency of Central Asia to leave the ruble, issued by the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic — at about 87 to the U.S. dollar; the notes printed in the country for the first time from 2026, by the president's announcement. Clocks keep Kyrgyzstan Time, UTC+6, all year, without summer time.
Who governs Kyrgyzstan?
President Sadyr Japarov, head of state and government under the presidential constitution he wrote and put to referendum in April 2021 — a nationalist populist freed from prison by the crowds of the revolution of October 2020 and elected on 10 January 2021 with 79 percent, in office since 28 January 2021 with Kamchybek Tashiev, his ally at the security service, beside him and Adylbek Kasymaliev as chairman of the cabinet since February 2025. The snap parliamentary election of 30 November 2025, the first by single-member districts alone, gave his loyalists more than four-fifths of the 90 seats on a turnout under 37 percent, with the OSCE calling it efficient and the media crackdown its concern; he intends to stand for a second term in the presidential election due 27 January 2027, and an earlier date has been proposed.
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