Tajikistan
Name
| Official name | Republic of Tajikistan — Jumhurii Tojikiston (Tajik, in Cyrillic: Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон); Respublika Tadzhikistan (Russian); Tajikistan (Tojikiston) the short form; TJK; the constitution of 6 November 1994 the name's law |
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| Former names | The Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic (5 December 1929 – 9 September 1991; the Tajik ASSR within the Uzbek SSR of 1924–29), the Emirate of Bukhara's eastern provinces and the Khanate of Kokand's north (to 1868–76), the Turkestan Governorate of the Tsars (the Samarkand and Fergana oblasts), the Samanid Khorasan and Transoxiana of the 10th century, Sogdiana and Bactria of the Greeks, Khuttal and Badakhshan of the Arab geographers; "Tajikistan" the name on the map since 1924 |
| Demonym | Tajik (Tojik; the Tajiks the people, Tajikistani the citizens of all nations), the Pamiris (Badakhshani) of the east by their own name, the Yaghnobis of the Zeravshan's valley the Sogdians' heirs; "Tojik" to the Uzbeks and the Russians |
| Meaning of the name | "The land of the Tajiks" — the Persian-speaking settled people of Central Asia, so called by the Turkic nomads of the Middle Ages (Tazik, from the Arab tribe of Tayy: first "Arab," then "Muslim," then the Persian-speaker who was neither Arab nor Turk, by the philologists), with the Persian "-stan" of place; the Tajiks' own word for their tongue Tojiki and for their forebears the Sogdians and the Samanids; "Dushanbe" the Monday market; "Pamir" perhaps the Persian "foot of the sun" or the Sanskrit "Upa-Meru," the land below the mountain of the gods — told both ways |
| Motto | None by law — the "Founder of Peace and National Unity, Leader of the Nation" the President's title by the law of 2015; "Tajikistan — the country of light" and the "national unity" of the peace of 27 June 1997 the state's words; the year's mottoes of the President's decrees (2025 the Year of Glaciers' Preservation; 2026 by the decree of the year) |
Quick facts
| Capital | Dushanbe ("Monday"; Stalinabad 1929–61) — the capital since 1924 on the Varzob and the Kofarnihon at about 800 m under the Hisor range; about 1.29 million people by the Agency on Statistics' count of 1 January 2026; Rudaki Avenue and the plane trees, the Palace of the Nation (2008), the flagpole of 165 m (2011; the world's tallest to 2014), the National Museum (2013), the Ismoil Somoni monument and the golden crown, the Navruz Palace, the opera and ballet theater of 1946, the mosque of 2024 (Central Asia's largest, the Qatari gift), the Dushanbe Tower of 77 floors begun in 2026 by the reports; the Hisor fortress and the Varzob gorge; the mayor Rustam Emomali since 12 January 2017; the airport, the 201st Russian base's garrison, the Chinese-built parliament and government house (2024) |
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| Largest cities | Dushanbe (about 1.29 million), Khujand (about 200,000; the north's capital on the Syr Darya, the Leninabad of 1936–91, Alexander's Eschate; the Fergana Valley's Tajik city), Bokhtar (about 115,000; the Qurghonteppa of the Vakhsh cotton, renamed 2018), Kulob (about 110,000; the President's region; the Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani shrine), Istaravshan (the Ura-Tyube of old; the craftsmen), Tursunzoda (the aluminum smelter of TALCO), Vahdat, Isfara (the apricots), Konibodom, Panjakent (the Sogdian ruins and Sarazm), Hisor, Khorog (about 30,000; the capital of Gorno-Badakhshan at 2,200 m), Murghab (3,650 m; the highest town) — the counts of the registers of 2026; three in four Tajiks in the villages |
| Official language | Tajik (Tojiki), the Persian of Central Asia in the Cyrillic script of 1940 (the Arabic script to 1928, the Latin 1928–40; the state language by the law of 1989 and the constitution of 1994, the law of 2009 that made it the language of all official business), with Russian "the language of interethnic communication" by the constitution (the schools, the migrants' Russia, the elite); Uzbek of the 11% (the north and the Hisor and Vakhsh valleys), the Pamiri languages of Badakhshan (Shughni, Rushani, Wakhi, Ishkashimi, Yazghulami — the Eastern Iranian tongues of the valleys, unwritten and unofficial), Yaghnobi (the Sogdian's last daughter, a few thousand speakers), Kyrgyz of the eastern Pamirs; Arabic of the mosque, English of the young; the names' Tajikization (the "-ov" and "-ev" dropped, the President's own from Rahmonov in 2007) |
| Currency | Somoni (ISO code TJS; SM), of 100 dirams — 9.24 to the U.S. dollar on 29 September 2026 by the National Bank's official rate (about 10.9 in 2024; the rise of 13% of the first half of 2025); introduced 30 October 2000 at 1,000 Tajik rubles to one; the National Bank of Tajikistan (1991; Chairman Firdavs Tolibzoda), the refinancing rate 7.00% since 2 February 2026 (the next meeting 29 October 2026), inflation 4.1% in August 2026 in the band of 5% ± 2; the dollar and the ruble of the remittances behind everything; the notes of 1 to 500 somoni, the Rogun dam on the 500 |
| Time zone | Tajikistan Time, UTC+5, all year — no summer time since 1991 |
| Calling code | +992 |
| Internet domain | .tj (since 1997) |
| ISO 3166 codes | TJ · TJK · 762 |
| Vehicle registration code | TJ |
| Driving side | Right |
| Electricity | 220 V, 50 Hz; plug types C and F (the Soviet and European pattern) |
| Independence | 9 September 1991 (Independence Day) — declared by the Supreme Soviet as the Soviet Union fell (the sovereignty declaration of 24 August 1990 before it), recognized 26 December 1991 with the Union's end, the CIS joined 21 December 1991 at Alma-Ata, the United Nations 2 March 1992; the Tajik ASSR of 14 October 1924 and the Tajik SSR of 5 December 1929 the Soviet births; the constitution of 6 November 1994 by referendum (amended 1999, 2003 and 2016); the National Unity Day of 27 June for the peace accord of 1997 |
| National days | Independence Day, 9 September (the 35th in 2026; the parades and the Rudaki Avenue lights); Navruz, 21–24 March, the Persian New Year of the sumanak and the buzkashi (the holiday of four days); National Unity Day, 27 June (the peace of 1997); Constitution Day, 6 November; the Day of the President (16 November) by the reports; New Year (1 January), Armed Forces Day (23 February), International Women's Day (8 March), Labor Day (1 May), Victory Day (9 May), the Day of the State Language (5 October, the President's birthday), Idi Ramazon (Eid al-Fitr) and Idi Qurbon (Eid al-Adha) by the moon; the Day of the Flag (24 November); the Sadah and Mehrgon festivals of the old Persian calendar revived |
| Constitution | The Constitution of the Republic of Tajikistan of 6 November 1994, by referendum (the amendments of 1999 — the seven-year presidency and the second chamber; 2003 — two further terms for the sitting president; 22 May 2016 — the "Leader of the Nation" freed of term limits, the presidential age cut from 35 to 30, the religious parties banned) — a presidential republic: the President head of state and government's chief, the Prime Minister his appointee, the two chambers of the Supreme Assembly, the Constitutional Court, the secular state of Article 1 and the state language of Article 2; the Law on the Founder of Peace and National Unity — Leader of the Nation (25 December 2015) with the President's lifelong immunity and say; the constitution's case for the presidency (the peace and the stability of a young state) and the critics' (a constitution rewritten for one man and his heir) — both stated (LAW 2) |
| Population | 10.72 million on 1 January 2026 by the Agency on Statistics (+2% in the year; 255,100 births and 34,400 deaths in 2025 — a natural increase of about 220,000, the fastest of the former Soviet Union); 10.4 million for 2025 by the IMF's count and 10.98 million for 2026 by the UN's estimate — all stated; the census of 2020 (about 9.3 million by the count) the last; 5.5 million at independence, doubled since; a third under 15, the median age about 23; Khatlon 3.88 million, Sughd 3.02 million, the districts of republican subordination 2.30 million, Dushanbe 1.29 million, Gorno-Badakhshan 236,400; about a million abroad at work, most in Russia; the 96th of the world by the counts |
| Area | 143,100 km² (55,250 sq mi) by the state's and the UN's count — 144,100 km² by the Factbook's (both stated) — the 94th of the world and the smallest of Central Asia's five; land 141,510 km², the water of the lakes and reservoirs about 1%; 93% mountain, half above 3,000 m; the borders 4,130 km (Afghanistan 1,357, Uzbekistan 1,312, Kyrgyzstan 984, China 477); landlocked, the sea 1,500 km away at Karachi by the road through Afghanistan the CASA-1000 line will follow; 700 km from west to east, 350 from north to south; the Vorukh exclave inside Kyrgyzstan and the Sarvan exclave in Uzbekistan by the old map |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | A horizontal tricolor of red, white and green in the proportions 2:3:2, with a golden crown of seven stars in an arc above it on the white — adopted 24 November 1992 (the Day of the Flag) by the Supreme Soviet in the civil war's first winter, the last of the Soviet republics' new flags, its red and green from the Tajik SSR's flag of 1953 (the red, white and green stripes of the Soviet flag kept in a new order): the red of the sun and the victory, the white of the cotton and the mountains' snow, the green of the fields and Islam by the state's reading, the crown (toj, the root of the people's name in the legend) and the seven stars of the seven mountains and the seven heavens of Persian lore and the number of happiness; 1:2, the crown of the arms of 1993 with its ears of wheat and the Pamirs' rising sun; flown from the 165-m flagpole of Dushanbe since 2011. Flag of Tajikistan |
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| Coat of arms | The emblem of 28 December 1993 — the crown of seven stars of the flag above a rising sun over the snowy Pamirs, in a wreath of wheat ears (right) and cotton bolls with open flowers (left) bound by the red, white and green ribbon, an open book on a stand at the base (the Quran or the constitution by the readings); the Soviet emblem's hammer, sickle and star of 1929–92 replaced, the wreath's form kept; on the passport, the somoni, the presidential standard and the parliament's chamber |
| National anthem | "Surudi Milli" ("National Anthem") — the music of Suleiman Yudakov's Tajik SSR anthem of 1946 kept, the new words of Gulnazar Keldi adopted 7 September 1994 ("Diyori arjmandi mo, ba bakhti mo sari azizi tu baland bod" — "Our beloved country, we are happy to see your dignity"); the Soviet anthem's Russian and Lenin verses gone; sung at the school day's start by the rule |
| National motto | None by law — the "Leader of the Nation" the state's; "Tajikistan — the country of light" the tourism's; "Vahdat" (unity) the peace's word and the town's name |
| National colors | Red, white and green of the flag, with the gold of the crown — the red of the Soviet past and the dawn, the white of the cotton, the green of the valleys; the football team in red and white, the Istiklol club of Dushanbe in white and blue |
| National animal | The snow leopard by custom (the Pamirs' cat, a few hundred in the country by the estimates; the emblem of the Tajik National Park and the "Snow Leopard" title of the climbers who summit the five 7,000-m peaks of the former Soviet Union, three of them Tajik), the Marco Polo sheep (argali) of the eastern Pamirs with its 1.9-m horns (the trophy hunters' permits of tens of thousands of dollars by the counts), the Bukhara deer of the tugay of Tigrovaya Balka, the markhor of the Darvoz, the Caspian tiger of Tigrovaya Balka gone by 1954, the bearded vulture and the Himalayan snowcock of the heights, the yak of Murghab's Kyrgyz herders, the Tajik dog of the shepherds |
| National flower and tree | None by law — the tulip of the mountains by custom (the Tulipa of the Zeravshan, Greig's and the Pamir species; the Sayri Lola tulip festival of Isfara), the pomegranate of Khujand's arms, the apricot (the dried apricots of Isfara and Konibodom, the country's fruit), the plane tree (chinor) of the avenues and the villages' shade, the walnut forests of the Darvoz, the juniper (archa) of the slopes, the mulberry of the silk, the cotton boll of the arms |
| National dish | Qurutob by custom — the flatbread torn into a bowl of qurut (dried sour cheese) dissolved in water, with onions, tomatoes, greens and the fat of the meat, eaten by hand from the common dish — with the osh (plov) of every wedding and Friday (the Tajik plov of the yellow carrots; the oshi palav on UNESCO's Intangible list, 2016), the shurbo soup, the sambusa, the mantu, the laghman of the Uyghurs, the kabob, the shirchoy of the Pamirs (salted milk tea), the non of the tandoor, the dried apricots, the mulberries and the walnuts, the green tea of every hour; the halva and the nishallo of Navruz, the sumanak of the wheat sprouts stirred all night |
| National sport | Football by custom — the national team's Asian Cup of 2023 (January 2024 in Qatar; the quarterfinal, the best finish of any Central Asian debutant, Jordan the conqueror), the World Cup never reached (the qualifying of 2026 ended in the second round), the qualifying of 2025–26 for the Asian Cup of 2027; the league of Istiklol Dushanbe (the champions of the decade), Ravshan Kulob, Khujand and Regar-TadAZ; buzkashi (the goat-carcass polo of Navruz on the Hisor plain), the gushtingiri wrestling of the villages, judo (Somon Makhmadbekov's and Temur Rakhimov's bronzes of Paris 2024), boxing (Davlat Boltaev's bronze of 2024), the hammer of Dilshod Nazarov (the one Olympic gold, Rio 2016; the world silver of 2015), the sambo and the wrestling of the Asian Games, the mountaineering of the Pamirs; the Olympic medals ×6 (Rasul Boqiev's judo bronze of 2008 and Mavzuna Chorieva's boxing bronze of 2012 the others); THE ASIAN GAMES OF AICHI-NAGOYA 2026 (19 September – 4 October) — the first medal on the board by the early count (a bronze); the Republican Stadium and the Pamir Stadium of Dushanbe; the Tajik Higher League |
| Heritage listings | UNESCO World Heritage ×5 — the proto-urban site of Sarazm (2010; the Chalcolithic town of the 4th millennium BC by Panjakent), the Tajik National Park of the Pamirs (2013; natural, 2.6 million hectares of glaciers and 7,000-m peaks), the Silk Roads: Zarafshan-Karakum Corridor (2023; with Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan), the tugay forests of the Tigrovaya Balka reserve (2023; natural, the Vakhsh's riverine woods) and the Cultural Heritage Sites of Ancient Khuttal (2025; the ten sites and one monument of the Khatlon of the 7th to 16th centuries — Hulbuk's palace, the Buddhist Ajina-Tepa, Khoja Mashhad); the tentative list of 16 (Takht-i Sangin's Oxus temple, the Fann Mountains, Zorkul, Shahristan, the Hisor fortress); Intangible Heritage — Shashmaqom (2008; with Uzbekistan), Navruz (2016; with 11 states), the oshi palav (2016), Chakan embroidery (2018), the falak music (2021), the crafting and playing of the rubab (2023; with Iran and Uzbekistan by the reports); biosphere reserves — the Ramit (Romit) reserve (2025); Ramsar ×5 (Karakul, Zorkul, Kayrakum, the Lower Panj, Shorkul-Rangkul) |
| Symbol status | The flag by the law of 24 November 1992, the emblem by the law of 28 December 1993, the anthem by the law of 7 September 1994, all in the constitution of 1994 (Article 3); the holidays by the law of 1995 and the President's decrees (Navruz's four days since 2009); no motto, animal, flower, dish or sport by law — all by custom; the "Leader of the Nation" by the law of 25 December 2015 |
Geography
| Location | Central Asia, landlocked in the Pamirs and the ranges north of them between 36°40′ and 41°03′ N and 67°20′ and 75°09′ E — Uzbekistan to the west and north (the Hisor valley's door to Termez and Samarkand, the Fergana Valley's north around Khujand), Kyrgyzstan to the north and east (the Alay and the Batken exclaves), China to the east across the Sarikol range (the Kulma pass to Kashgar, 4,363 m), Afghanistan to the south along the Panj and the Amu Darya (the Wakhan corridor's north bank; Pakistan 15 km away across it); the Fergana Valley's western tip, the Zeravshan's upper valley, the Vakhsh and Kofarnihon valleys, the Khatlon plain; the earthquake belt of the Tien Shan–Pamir knot; the 8,000 glaciers of the region's water tower |
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| Land borders | 4,130 km — Afghanistan 1,357 km (the Panj and the Amu Darya from the Wakhan to Shamsiddin Shohin; the bridges of Panji Poyon (2007, the American-built), Ishkashim, Tem/Khorog and Darvoz; the Taliban since 2021 whom Dushanbe alone of the neighbors refuses, the drone attacks on the Chinese workers' camps of 26 and 30 November 2025 and the clash of 24 December 2025 (two border guards and three intruders dead), the heroin road of the Afghan opium to Russia, the Russian 201st base's watch), Uzbekistan 1,312 km (the mined border of 2000–18 cleared, the crossings reopened by Mirziyoyev's thaw of 2018, the Tajik embassy in Tashkent opened 26 March 2026 on Rahmon's state visit), Kyrgyzstan 984 km (the treaty of 13 March 2025 signed at Bishkek by Rahmon and Japarov after the wars of April–May 2021 (55 dead) and 14–20 September 2022 (more than 100 dead); the Vorukh exclave's roads, the Tort-Kocho road a condominium, the junction with Uzbekistan fixed at Khujand 31 March 2025; the crossings and the flights reopened), China 477 km (the Sarikol crest; the 1,100 km² ceded to China by the treaty of 2011; the Kulma pass open May to November) |
| Coastline | None — landlocked, 1,500 km from the Arabian Sea at Karachi by the road through Afghanistan and Pakistan and 3,000 from the Indian Ocean's ports Tajik goods use by rail through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan; the "coasts" of Lake Karakul (380 km²; 3,900 m up), the Kayrakum (Bahri Tojik) reservoir of the Syr Darya (513 km², the "Tajik Sea" of Khujand's beaches), the Nurek reservoir of the Vakhsh (98 km², 70 km long) and Lake Sarez; the Amu Darya once the way to the Aral, dry since the 1980s |
| Highest point | Ismoil Somoni Peak, 7,495 m (24,590 ft), in the Academy of Sciences Range of the Pamirs — the highest of Tajikistan and of the former Soviet Union (Stalin Peak 1933–62, Communism Peak 1962–98; first climbed by Yevgeny Abalakov on 3 September 1933); Ibn Sina (Lenin) Peak 7,134 m on the Kyrgyz border (the deadliest of the 7,000ers, the avalanche of 1990's 43), Korzhenevskaya 7,105 m, Independence (Revolution) Peak 6,940 m, Karl Marx Peak 6,726 m of the Shakhdara, Mayakovsky Peak; the Fedchenko Glacier (77 km; the longest outside the polar regions) and the Pamir Firn Plateau; the Pamir Highway's Ak-Baital pass at 4,655 m, the Kulma pass at 4,363 m; the Fann Mountains' Chimtarga 5,489 m, the Zeravshan and Hisor ranges, the Turkestan range's Ak-Su walls of the climbers; the Anzob pass 3,372 m; Murghab the highest town at 3,650 m |
| Lowest point | The Syr Darya at about 300 m as it leaves the Fergana Valley below Khujand for Uzbekistan — the Panj and the Amu Darya at about 320 m at the Afghan border's southwestern end (Shaartuz, the Kofarnihon's mouth), the Vakhsh valley and the Khatlon plain at 400 to 600 m, Dushanbe about 800 m, Khujand 340 m, Kulob 580 m, Khorog 2,200 m, Murghab 3,650 m |
| Mean elevation | About 3,190 m by the Factbook's count — among the three or four highest of the world's countries with Bhutan, Nepal and Kyrgyzstan; 93% of the land mountain, half above 3,000 m: the Pamirs of the east (the high plateau of the eastern Pamirs at 3,500 to 4,500 m, the deep valleys of the western Pamirs), the Trans-Alay, Zeravshan, Hisor and Turkestan ranges of the center and north, the Fergana Valley's floor (300–500 m) and the Khatlon and Hisor valleys (400–900 m) the lowlands where nine in ten live |
| Rivers | The water tower of Central Asia — the Amu Darya (the Panj of the Afghan border from the Wakhan to the Vakhsh's mouth, 921 km; the Amu Darya below it to the Uzbek border), its tributaries the Vakhsh (524 km; the Surkhob and the Kyzylsu from the Alay; the Rogun and Nurek dams, the cascade of nine plants, the country's power), the Kofarnihon of Dushanbe's plain, the Bartang and the Gunt of the Pamirs (the Sarez outflow), the Kyzylsu of Kulob; the Syr Darya across the north through Khujand (the Kayrakum dam), the Zeravshan (877 km; to Samarkand and Bukhara, the Fann Mountains' river) with the Yaghnob and the Fan Darya; the Zorkul the Panj's source; the Sarez, Iskanderkul and Karakul lakes; the 8,000 glaciers of 8,500 km² (Fedchenko 77 km, Grumm-Grzhimailo 37, Garmo 27) and their retreat of a third since 1930 by the counts (the International Year of Glaciers' Preservation of 2025 Tajikistan's initiative; the Dushanbe Glaciers Conference of 29–31 May 2025); 60% of the Aral basin's water rises here |
| Lakes | About 1,300 by the count — Karakul (380 km²; a meteorite crater's salt lake at 3,900 m in the eastern Pamirs, the largest), Sarez (80 km², 500 m deep; the lake dammed by the Usoi landslide of the earthquake of 18 February 1911 — the Usoi Dam of 567 m the tallest natural dam of the world; the outburst feared for a century, the alarm system of 2006), Zorkul (39 km²; the Panj's source on the Afghan border, Lake Victoria of the Great Game), Yashilkul and Bulunkul of the Gunt, Rangkul and Shorkul, Iskanderkul of the Fann Mountains (2,195 m; Alexander's lake by the legend), the Marguzor lakes (the seven lakes of the Shing), Alauddin and Kulikalon of the Fann; the reservoirs of Nurek (98 km², 10.5 km³), Kayrakum on the Syr Darya (513 km²), Rogun to come (170 km², 13.3 km³ by the design), Baipaza, Sangtuda |
| Terrain | The Pamirs — the "roof of the world" where the Himalaya, the Hindu Kush, the Karakoram and the Tien Shan meet: the eastern Pamirs a high desert plateau of 3,500 to 4,500 m with the ranges above it (Murghab's Kyrgyz yak herders), the western Pamirs cut into deep gorges (the Panj, the Bartang, the Gunt, the Shakhdara) with the villages on the alluvial fans; the Alay and Trans-Alay of the north (Lenin Peak), the Zeravshan and Hisor ranges with the Fann Mountains between the Zeravshan and the Hisor valleys, the Turkestan range on the Fergana's south; the Fergana Valley's tip at Khujand and Konibodom (the cotton and the apricots), the Hisor valley of Dushanbe, the Vakhsh and Kofarnihon valleys and the Khatlon plain of the cotton (the Tigrovaya Balka tugay), the Zeravshan valley of the Yaghnob and Panjakent; the loess hills, the earthquakes, the landslides (the Khait of 1949); a third of the land under 1,000 m holds nine in ten of the people |
| Climate | Continental, dry and vertical — the valleys of the south and north hot in summer and mild in winter (Dushanbe about 1°C in January and 28°C in July, about 570 mm of rain in winter and spring; Khujand drier and colder in winter; the Khatlon plain to 45°C in July, Shaartuz the hottest), the middle mountains temperate (Khorog −7°C to 22°C, 240 mm), the eastern Pamirs an arctic desert (Murghab −20°C in January and 13°C in July, under 100 mm, the Bulunkul −63°C of the record by the counts, the coldest of Central Asia); the snow of the ranges the year's water, the glaciers melting faster (a third lost since 1930; the 2025 Year of Glaciers), the droughts of 2000–01 and 2021, the floods and mudflows of the spring melt (Penjikent's of 16 June 2025), the avalanches of the Anzob and the Pamir Highway; the dust storms from the Aral and the Afghan south; the winter power cuts when the Vakhsh runs low |
| Natural hazards | Earthquakes of the Pamir–Tien Shan knot — the Khait earthquake of 10 July 1949 (magnitude 7.4; the landslide that buried the town and the Yasman valley's villages, 7,200 dead by the official count and up to 28,000 by the estimates), the Sarez earthquake of 1911 (the Usoi landslide), Karatag 1907, Hisor 1989 (the Gissar mudflow's 274 dead), the Murghab quake of 7 December 2015 (magnitude 7.2), the Rasht quake of 13 April 2025 (5.8; one dead); the landslides and mudflows of the loess hills and the spring melt (Kulob's floods of 2010, the Zeravshan's of 2025), the avalanches of the passes (the Anzob's about 45 dead of 1997), the glacial lake outbursts of the Pamirs and the Sarez fear (5,000 km² downstream at risk by the counts), the droughts and the locusts; the road deaths of the mountain highways (the Vahdat crash of 2 July 2026, 11 dead on the Dushanbe–Kulob–Khorog road); the winter cold of the eastern Pamirs; the Afghan border's drones and gunmen of 2025 |
| Natural resources | Water and the mountains — the hydropower potential of about 527 billion kWh a year by the counts, the eighth of the world and 4% used (Nurek 3,015 MW, Rogun 3,780 MW at completion, Sangtuda 1 and 2, Baipaza, Kayrakum); gold (about 10 metric tons a year and rising by the estimates; the Zarafshon joint venture of China's Zijin at Jilau and Taror, the Pakrut mine), silver (the Konimansur deposit of the Karamazar, among the largest unmined in the world), antimony (the Anzob and Skalnoe mines; the world's second or third producer by the counts, the exports to Europe of 2025 and the American interest of 2026), lead and zinc, tungsten, mercury, fluorite, coal (Fon-Yaghnob; the Chinese-built cement kilns burn it), the uranium of the Soviet years (Taboshar, the tailings of the north), the aluminum smelted at Tursunzoda from imported alumina (TALCO, the Soviet plant of 1975), the cotton of the valleys, the apricots, the marble; oil and gas small (the Bokhtar block explored, the imports from Russia and Kazakhstan; the Iranian fuel sought in 2026); the scenery of the Pamirs sold to the tourists |
| Land use | Agricultural about 34% by the Factbook's count — arable only about 6% (the irrigated cotton and wheat of the Vakhsh, the Fergana, the Hisor and the Zeravshan; 720,000 hectares irrigated by the Soviet canals), permanent crops 1% (the apricot, apple and walnut orchards, the vines), pasture about 28% (the summer pastures of the Pamirs and the Alay, the yaks and the sheep); forest about 3% (the juniper, the walnut of the Darvoz, the tugay of the Vakhsh, the Soviet felling); the rest rock, ice and desert; the land reform of the dehkan farms after the kolkhozes (2000s), the cotton's fall from 500,000 metric tons to about 400,000 and the wheat's rise, the household plots of a quarter of the food; the salinization and the water losses of the canals; the migrants' land left to the women |
| National parks | The Tajik National Park (1992; 2.6 million hectares of the Pamirs, 18% of the country, the World Heritage of 2013 — the Fedchenko, the Karakul, Ismoil Somoni Peak, the snow leopards and the Marco Polo sheep), Shirkent (1991; the dinosaur tracks of the Hisor range), Sari-Khosor (2003; the walnut forests of Baljuvon); the state reserves of Tigrovaya Balka (1938; the tugay of the Vakhsh, the World Heritage of 2023, the Bukhara deer), Ramit/Romit (1959; the UNESCO biosphere reserve of 27 September 2025), Dashtijum (the markhor), Zorkul (2000; the Panj's source lake); the Iskanderkul and Childukhtaron nature parks; the Ramsar sites ×5; about 22% of the land protected on paper by the counts; the trophy hunting of the argali that pays for the Pamirs' rangers; the Pamir Highway's tourists on the M41 |
| UNESCO World Heritage | Five sites — the proto-urban site of Sarazm (2010; the town of 3500–2000 BC by Panjakent, the oldest of Central Asia's, the "princess of Sarazm" burial of the lapis and the turquoise), the Tajik National Park of the Pamirs (2013; natural), the Silk Roads: Zarafshan-Karakum Corridor (2023; cultural, 866 km with Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan — Panjakent's Sogdian frescoes and Sarazm's neighbors), the tugay forests of the Tigrovaya Balka Nature Reserve (2023; natural, the largest intact tugay of Central Asia), the Cultural Heritage Sites of Ancient Khuttal (2025; the Hulbuk palace of the 10th century, the Buddhist monastery of Ajina-Tepa of the 7th–8th centuries and its 13-m sleeping Buddha (in the National Museum), the Khoja Mashhad madrasa of Shaartuz, the ten sites of the Khatlon); the tentative list of 16 — Takht-i Sangin (the Oxus Treasure's temple), the Fann Mountains, Zorkul, Shahristan (Bunjikat), the Hisor fortress, Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani's shrine at Kulob |
| Administrative divisions | Two provinces (viloyatho) — Sughd (the north; Khujand) and Khatlon (the south; Bokhtar) — the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (Viloyati Mukhtori Kuhistoni Badakhshon; Khorog; 45% of the land, 2% of the people; the Pamiri Ismailis' region, its autonomy on paper since 1925 and its protests of 2012, 2018 and 2021–22 crushed), the 13 Districts of Republican Subordination around Dushanbe (the Rasht valley, Hisor, Tursunzoda, Vahdat) under the capital's hand, and the city of Dushanbe; 58 districts (nohiya) and the cities; the governors (raisi viloyat) and the district heads the President's appointees, the local councils (majlisi) elected on the parliament's day; the Chinese-built government buildings; the Kulob and Danghara of the President's home the favored south |
People
| Population | 10.72 million on 1 January 2026 by the Agency on Statistics (+2%; 255,100 births, 34,400 deaths in 2025), 10.4 million for 2025 by the IMF's count, 10.98 million for 2026 by the UN's — all stated; the census of 2020 the last (about 9.3 million by the count); 5.5 million at independence in 1991 and 1.5 million in 1950, the fastest-growing people of the former Soviet Union (the emigration of the Russians, Germans and Jews of the 1990s and the flight of the civil war net against it); Tajiks 86.1% and Uzbeks 11.3% by the census of 2020 (the Pamiris counted as Tajiks), Kyrgyz 0.4%, Russians 0.3% (from 7.6% in 1989), the Turkmen of Jilikul, the Arabs of the Vakhsh, the Yaghnobis, the Koreans, the Tatars; women half; the under-15s a third, the over-65s about 4%; Khatlon 3.88 million, Sughd 3.02 million, the DRS 2.30 million, Dushanbe 1.29 million, GBAO 236,400; about a million abroad, most in Russia |
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| Population density | About 75 to the km² by the count — the Hisor and Vakhsh valleys and the Fergana tip at 300 to 500 and more (Khujand's Sughd, the Bokhtar and Kulob plains), Dushanbe's 1.3 million on 127 km², the Gorno-Badakhshan of 2 to the km² (236,000 people on 64,000 km², Murghab's district emptier still); three in four in the villages by the registers, the towns growing with the returnees and the young |
| Population growth | About 2% a year (2025) — the natural increase of about 220,000 a year (the births 255,100, the crude birth rate about 24 per 1,000; the deaths 34,400, about 3 per 1,000, the youngest death rate of the region), the fertility rate about 3.0 by the UN's estimate (3.5 by the older counts; 6.3 in 1975), the emigration of the migrants' years a wash as they return and leave again; the population doubled since 1991 and headed for 12 million by 2030 by the projections; the government's family planning quiet, the mullahs' large families, the marriage age 18 by the law of 2010 (the child marriages of the villages fought) |
| Median age | About 23 years by the UN's estimate — the youngest of the former Soviet Union (the under-15s about 33%, the over-65s about 4%; the working-age bulge that the country cannot employ and Russia does); the retirement age 63 for men and 58 for women; the schools of 2.3 million pupils and the classes of 40; the conscripts of two years at 18 (the "oblava" round-ups of the reluctant) |
| Life expectancy | About 72 years by the UN's estimate (75 by the government's count; both stated) — women about 74, men about 70; infant mortality about 25 per 1,000 by the UN's count (the government's lower); the health system of the Soviet inheritance thinly funded (the smallest health spending of the region a head), the doctors abroad, the tuberculosis and the anemia of the poor, the polio of 2010 and the measles, the pandemic's 2020 denial and 125 official deaths; the Aga Khan's hospitals and the Khorog medical center of the Pamirs; the Ministry of Health |
| Fertility rate | About 3.0 children per woman by the UN's estimate for 2024 (3.5 by the older official counts; 6.3 in 1975, 4.0 in 2000) — the highest of the former Soviet Union with Kyrgyzstan's behind; the 255,100 births of 2025; the marriage age 18 by the law of 2010 (the polygamous second wives of the migrants' villages unregistered), the mothers' age at first birth about 23, the households of six; the maternity of the villages, the midwives |
| Urban population | About 28% by the count (2025) — the least urban of the former Soviet republics: Dushanbe (1.29 million), Khujand (about 200,000; 900,000 in its agglomeration of the Fergana tip), Bokhtar, Kulob, Istaravshan, Tursunzoda, Vahdat, Isfara, Konibodom, Panjakent, Hisor, Khorog; the villages (qishloq) of the valleys with their mahallas and their mosques, the kolkhoz towns of the cotton, the Pamir hamlets on the fans; the Soviet blocks and the new towers of Dushanbe (the demolition of the old Soviet center for the Chinese-built ministries and the malls), the migrants' remittance houses of the villages |
| Adult literacy | 99.8% by the count (the Soviet schooling's legacy) — the 11-year school (the 9 compulsory), the classes of 40 in the villages and the teachers of US$150 a month, the Russian-language schools of the Russian-built five (2022; the migrants' hope), the Tajik National University (1948; the largest), the Technical University, the Medical University of Ibn Sina, the Khujand State University, the Khorog State University (1992) and the University of Central Asia's campus at Khorog (2017; the Aga Khan's), the Russian-Tajik Slavonic University, the Moscow State University branch; the madrasa education restricted (the students abroad recalled in 2010, the hijab and the "alien" dress banned by the law of June 2024, the children barred from mosques); the brain drain to Russia; the Ministry of Education and Science |
| Ethnic groups | Tajiks 86.1% by the census of 2020 (the Persian-speaking settled people of the valleys; the Pamiris of Badakhshan, about 200,000 Ismailis speaking their own Eastern Iranian languages, counted among them by the state and not by themselves; the Yaghnobis of the Zeravshan's valley, the Sogdians' heirs, a few thousand), Uzbeks 11.3% (the north around Khujand, the Hisor and the Vakhsh — the Laqai and the Qonghirat tribes among them; 25% in 1989 by the old counts, the shift of the census categories), Kyrgyz 0.4% (the yak herders of Murghab in the eastern Pamirs), Russians 0.3% (about 35,000; 390,000 in 1989 — the flight of the civil war), the Turkmen of Jilikul, the Arabs of the Vakhsh, the Tatars, the Koreans of the deportations, the Germans gone, the Bukharan Jews gone (the synagogue of Dushanbe demolished 2008 and rebuilt), the Afghans of the refugee camps (deported in the summer of 2025); the Chinese workers of the mines and the roads (the camps of Darvoz and Shamsiddin Shohin attacked in November 2025) |
| Languages | Tajik (Tojiki), the state language — the Persian of the Samanids and Rudaki in the Cyrillic of 1940, mutually intelligible with Iran's Farsi and Afghanistan's Dari, with the dialects of the north (Khujand), the south (Kulob) and the Darvoz; Russian the "language of interethnic communication" (the constitution's phrase; the schools, the migrants, the business of the elite; about a quarter fluent), Uzbek of the 11%, the Pamiri languages (Shughni of Khorog, Rushani, Bartangi, Wakhi of the Wakhan, Ishkashimi, Yazghulami — unwritten Eastern Iranian tongues of a few hundred thousand), Yaghnobi, Kyrgyz, Arabic of the mosque and the Vakhsh's Arabs, Turkmen; English of the young and the NGOs, Chinese of the mines; the Latin-script debate shelved, the Arabic script of the Persian classics taught; the Tajikization of the names by the law of 2016 (the Slavic endings dropped), the Tajik of the signboards by the language law of 2009 |
| Religion | Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi school about 87 to 90% (the Tajiks and the Uzbeks; the Hanafi rite declared the official school in 2009, the Islamic Center and the state's imams of the Friday sermons, the beards, the hijab and the children's mosque visits policed — the "alien garments" law of June 2024, the thousands of mosques closed as illegal since 2011), Ismaili Shia about 5 to 10% (the Pamiris of Gorno-Badakhshan, the Aga Khan their imam and their benefactor since the famine of 1992–93; the Ismaili centers of Dushanbe and Khorog), Twelver Shia few, the Orthodox Russians and the Protestants under 1%, the Jews a few dozen, the Zoroastrian memory of Navruz and the Sadah; the secular state of Article 1, the Islamic Renaissance Party's ban of 2015 (the only registered Islamic party of the former Soviet Union to that year), the Salafis' and the "Jamaat Ansarullah" of the Afghan border; the Islamic State's Tajik recruits of Syria (2014–17) and Moscow's Crocus City Hall (22 March 2024; 145 dead; the four Tajik gunmen) the state's argument and the migrants' burden |
| Human Development Index | 0.691 (2023) — medium, 128th of 193 (UNDP, 2025), the lowest of the former Soviet Union; the poverty — 14.8% under US$4.20 a day and 4.9% under US$3 a day by the World Bank's count of 2025 (from 18.1% and 7.3% in 2023; the national line's 21% by the older counts), the fastest poverty fall of the region on the remittances; the Gini about 34; the wage about US$250 a month by the counts, the pension about US$50; the remittances 46% of GDP (2025) the lifeline of every second household; the wealth of the presidential family and the Faroz group the unspoken; the aid of the World Bank, the ADB, the EU, the Aga Khan and China |
| Housing and living | The village house of the courtyard and the tapchan, the remittance houses of two floors with the migrants' Russian roubles, the Soviet blocks of Dushanbe and the new towers of the center's demolition (the Chinese-built Dushanbe of the 2010s–20s: the parliament, the government house, the mosque, the malls, the Tower of 2026), the mahalla; the winter power cuts of the villages (the rationing of the Vakhsh's low water to 2024, the Rogun's promise), the coal stoves and the wood, the water of the standpipes (half the villages without piped water), the gas of the bottles (the Uzbek pipeline cut 2012, restored 2018 in part); the bread of the tandoor, the plov, the tea; the wedding law of 2007 that caps the guests (150) and the funeral feasts; the cars of the migrants (the used Toyotas of the Gulf, the Chinese brands), the taxis; the internet slow and watched (the blocks of Facebook and YouTube by turns), the mobile of Tcell, Megafon and Babilon; the fuel of Russia's 91% (the diesel scare of 2026 and the Iranian request); the earthquakes' fear; the Pamir Highway's trucks |
| Learning and letters | The Persian classics as Tajikistan's own — Rudaki of Panjakent (858–941; "the father of Persian poetry," the Samanid court poet, his mausoleum at Panjrud), Ferdowsi's Shahnameh (the Samanid commission), Avicenna (Ibn Sina, born at Afshana by Bukhara in 980; the Medical University's name), Nasir Khusraw of the Pamirs' Ismailis (1004–88; the Yumgan exile), Kamol Khujandi, Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani of Kulob's shrine; the Soviet founders — Sadriddin Ayni (1878–1954; the "Reminiscences," the Academy's first president), Abulqosim Lohuti, Mirzo Tursunzoda (1911–77; the town's name), Loik Sherali (1941–2000), Bozor Sobir (the exile's poet, 1938–2018), Mumin Qanoat; the Sogdian frescoes of Panjakent and the Oxus Treasure's Takht-i Sangin (the Buddha of Ajina-Tepa in the National Museum); the Academy of Sciences (1951); the Shashmaqom of Bukhara's Tajik and Uzbek masters, the falak of the mountains, Daler Nazarov's rock, the Pamiri rubab; the cinema of Tajikfilm (Bakhtiyor Khudoynazarov's "Kosh ba kosh," Venice 1993; "Luna Papa" 1999); the Firdavsi National Library (2012; the region's largest); the state TV and the satellite dishes of the Russian channels; the Navruz of the sumanak |
| Sport | Football (the Asian Cup quarterfinal of 2024 the peak — Qatar's tournament of January 2024, the debut, the penalties over the Emirates and Jordan's 1–0; Istiklol Dushanbe's league titles and Asian Cup runs, the Higher League of 2026; the World Cup qualifying of 2026 ended in the second round; the Asian Cup of 2027's qualifying), the Olympic medals ×6 — Dilshod Nazarov's hammer gold of Rio 2016 (the first and only; his world silver of 2015 and three Asian Games golds), Rasul Boqiev's judo bronze of 2008, Mavzuna Chorieva's boxing bronze of 2012, and the three bronzes of Paris 2024 (Somon Makhmadbekov, judo 81 kg, 30 July; Temur Rakhimov, judo +100 kg, 2 August; Davlat Boltaev, boxing 92 kg, 4 August — the best Games), none at the Winter Games; THE ASIAN GAMES OF AICHI-NAGOYA (19 September – 4 October 2026) — a bronze by the early count, the wrestlers, the judoka, the sambo and the boxers to come; buzkashi of Navruz on the Hisor plain, gushtingiri, the sambo of the Soviet schools, the mountaineering of the Pamirs (the "Snow Leopards"), the Pamir marathon; the Republican Stadium and the Pamir Stadium; the Tajik Olympic Committee (1992) |
| Diaspora | About a million Tajiks at work abroad by the counts of 2025 — Russia by far the first (the building sites, the markets and the taxis of Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Urals; about 1.2 million at the peak of 2023, fewer since the Crocus attack of 22 March 2024 and the deportations, raids and bans of 2024–26; the remittances of US$8 billion or so by the estimates, 46% of GDP), Kazakhstan, the Gulf, Turkey, South Korea and the Britain of the seasonal visas the new roads; the Tajiks of Uzbekistan (about 1.5 million by the Uzbek count, far more by the Tajik — the Samarkand and Bukhara of the Tajik tongue), of Afghanistan (the Persian-speaking quarter of that country's people; the Panjshir and Badakhshan of Massoud), of China's Tashkurgan (the Sarikoli Pamiris), of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan; the emigrés of the civil war in Russia, Europe and the United States, the IRPT's exiles of Vilnius and Warsaw, the Pamiri exiles; the Russian citizenship taken by hundreds of thousands (the dual citizenship treaty with Russia of 1995 the one) |
Government
| Form of government | A unitary presidential republic under the constitution of 1994 — the President head of state and of the executive, elected by the people for seven years (since 1999; without limit for the "Leader of the Nation" since 2016), the Prime Minister and the ministers his appointees, the two chambers of the Supreme Assembly (Majlisi Oli) of 1999: the National Assembly (Majlisi Milli) of 33 (25 elected by the local councils, 8 named by the President, the former presidents members for life) and the Assembly of Representatives (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of 63 (41 by single-member districts, 22 by a national list at 5%) for five years; the Constitutional, Supreme and Higher Economic Courts; the two provinces, the autonomous region, the capital and the districts under appointed heads; the People's Democratic Party the ruling party since 1998, the Islamic party banned, the elections without the OSCE's blessing ("authoritarian" in the indices); the peace accord of 1997 the state's founding bargain, since undone |
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| President | Emomali Rahmon (born 5 October 1952 at Danghara, Kulob region; Rahmonov until 2007; the state-farm chairman and Kulob council chairman) — chairman of the Supreme Soviet and head of state from 19 November 1992, President since 16 November 1994 (elected 6 November 1994 with 58%; re-elected 6 November 1999 with 97%, 6 November 2006 with 80%, 6 November 2013 with 84%, 11 October 2020 with more than 90% by the official counts — none judged free and fair by the OSCE), the "Founder of Peace and National Unity, Leader of the Nation" by the law of 25 December 2015, freed of term limits by the referendum of 22 May 2016; among the longest-ruling leaders of the world by the counts; the civil war's victor and the peacemaker of 1997, the builder of Rogun and the roads, the ruler of a family state — Rustam Emomali (born 19 December 1987) the son and heir, mayor of Dushanbe since 12 January 2017 and chairman of the National Assembly since 17 April 2020, Ozoda Rahmon the daughter and chief of staff (since 2016), the sons-in-law of the banks and the customs; the next election due in 2027 (the seven years from October 2020) — the handover to Rustam expected by the reports, the father's health the whisper; the state visit to Uzbekistan of 26 March 2026, Putin's to Dushanbe of 8–10 October 2025; the Presidential Palace of the Nation |
| Prime Minister | Kokhir (Qohir) Rasulzoda — Prime Minister since 23 November 2013 (the Sughd governor of 2006–13; the fifth premier of the presidency after Abdujalil Samadov, Jamshed Karimov, Yahyo Azimov of 1996–99 and Oqil Oqilov of 1999–2013), the head of the government the President appoints and the Assembly confirms, the manager of the budget, the Rogun works and the agriculture; the first deputy prime minister Hokim Kholiqzoda; the Prime Minister's office of the Executive Apparatus at the Palace of the Nation; the cabinet of the President's men and the family's |
| Cabinet | The Government of the Republic — the Prime Minister and about 20 ministers and committee chairs, all the President's appointees: Foreign Affairs Sirojiddin Muhriddin (since 2013), Defense Colonel General Sherali Mirzo (since 2013), the Interior Ramazon Rahimzoda (since 2012), the State Committee for National Security Saymumin Yatimov (since 2010), Finance Faiziddin Qahhorzoda, Economic Development and Trade Zavqi Zavqizoda, Energy and Water Resources Daler Juma, Industry and New Technologies Sherali Kabir, Agriculture, Education and Science, Health, Labor, Migration and Employment, Transport, Culture, Justice; the Committee on Religion, the Committee on Women and the Family, the Agency on Statistics, the Anti-Corruption Agency, the Customs and Tax committees; the National Bank's Firdavs Tolibzoda; the President's Executive Apparatus under Ozoda Rahmon the real center; the ministers of the Kulob and Danghara clans; the counts of 2026 by the reports, the changes by decree unannounced |
| The last election | The Assembly of Representatives, 2 March 2025 — the People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan (the President's) 49 of 63 seats on 52.45% of the list vote, the Agrarian Party 7 (21.25%), the Party of Economic Reforms 5 (12.82%), the Socialist Party 1 (5.34%), the Democratic Party 1 (5.11%), the Communists none; turnout 85.35% by the Central Commission; the OSCE's observers absent "for want of formal guarantees" (the first OSCE-less election since 1995), the CIS and SCO observers content; the National Assembly of 33 elected by the local councils on 28 March 2025 with the President's eight named after, Rustam Emomali re-elected its chairman; the Islamic Renaissance Party banned since 2015, the Social Democrats unregistered; the presidential election of 11 October 2020 — Rahmon more than 90% by the official count against four names, the OSCE's assessment that it lacked "genuine political alternatives"; the government's case (the stability the voters want) and the critics' (a vote without a choice) — both stated (LAW 2) |
| Parliament | Bicameral — the Supreme Assembly (Majlisi Oli) since 2000 (the amendment of 1999): the National Assembly (Majlisi Milli) of 33 for five years (25 elected indirectly by the councils of the provinces, the autonomous region, the districts and Dushanbe, 8 appointed by the President; the former presidents for life), chairman Rustam Emomali since 17 April 2020 (re-elected April 2025; the second man of the state by the constitution's line of succession), and the Assembly of Representatives (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of 63 for five years (41 constituencies, 22 by list), chairman Mahmadtoir Zokirzoda since 2020 by the counts, the seventh convocation of March 2025; the laws and the budget by the two chambers and the President's signature, the President's decrees the working law; the parliament building of Rudaki Avenue rebuilt by China (2024); the sessions unbroadcast, the opposition none; the Speaker's succession the watched post |
| The politics of the year | The year before the election year — THE SUCCESSION: Rustam Emomali at 38 the chairman of the National Assembly, the mayor and the heir, the father at 73 and in his 34th year, the election due in 2027 (the seven years from October 2020), the referendum-made rules that fit either (no limit for the father, the age of 30 for the son), the handover expected by the reports and announced by no one; THE BORDERS: the Kyrgyz treaty of 13 March 2025 (Bishkek; the wars of 2021 and 2022 ended, the roads and the flights reopened) and the Khujand junction of 31 March 2025 with Uzbekistan; the Afghan border's fire — the drones on the Chinese workers' camps of 26 and 30 November 2025 (five dead) and the clash of 24 December 2025 (two guards, three intruders), the Taliban's arrests and pledges, the Russian offer of guards Dushanbe denied, the electricity still sold south, the refugees deported in July 2025; THE PATRONS: Putin's state visit and the CIS and Central Asia–Russia summits of 8–10 October 2025 in Dushanbe (the migrants' rights the ask), the Russian diesel's stop of 2026 and the Iranian fuel request of August 2026 (2.55 million metric tons asked), China's mines, roads and buildings and its workers' dead, the World Bank's Rogun grant of 30 June 2026 (US$300 million) and the EU's sanctions on three Tajik banks for the Russia trade (2025), the American eye on the antimony (2026); THE STATE: the 35th Independence Day of 9 September 2026, the state visit to Tashkent of 26 March 2026 (the embassy opened), the Dushanbe Tower of 77 floors begun, the Ramit biosphere, the "alien garments" law's beards and hijabs, the mosques' children, the Vahdat crash of 2 July 2026 (11 dead), the IRPT's new chairman Islomiddin Saidov elected in Vilnius on 19 September 2026 after Kabiri's 20 years (the party's ICC complaint of 11 April 2025), the Pamiri prisoners of 2022; THE ECONOMY: the 8.4% of 2025 and the remittances' 46%, the somoni's strength, the rate at 7%, the World Bank's warning of the migrants' fall; the government's case (peace, growth, the dams and the borders settled) and the critics' (the family, the fear and the migrants' dependence) — both stated (LAW 2) |
| Next elections | The presidential election due in 2027 — the seven-year term of 11 October 2020 ends in the autumn of 2027, the date the Central Commission's to set (the elections of 1999, 2006 and 2013 on 6 November, of 2020 on 11 October); the parliamentary elections of 2030 (the five years from March 2025); the local councils with them; the referendum on the constitution none announced; the succession of Rustam Emomali the question every date carries |
| Parties | The People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan (PDPT; 1994 as the People's Party, the President's since 1998; 49 seats; the party of the state), the Agrarian Party (2005; 7), the Party of Economic Reforms (2005; 5), the Socialist Party (1996; 1), the Democratic Party (1990; 1), the Communist Party (1991; the Soviet heir, out of the chamber since 2025); the Islamic Renaissance Party (IRPT; 1990/1991, the civil war's United Tajik Opposition's core, the parliament's party of 1999–2015 with two seats, banned 28 August 2015 and declared terrorist by the Supreme Court on 29 September 2015 after the Nazarzoda mutiny; Muhiddin Kabiri its chairman of 2006–2026 in exile, Islomiddin Saidov since 19 September 2026; the members' sentences of 2016 to life), the Social Democratic Party of Rahmatillo Zoirov (unregistered), the Group 24 of the exile (banned 2014; its founder Umarali Quvvatov shot in Istanbul 2015), the National Alliance of the exiles (2018); the ban on religious parties by the referendum of 2016; the parties' registrations the Justice Ministry's gift |
| Legal system | Civil law of the Soviet line — the constitution of 1994, the Civil Code (1999), the Criminal Code (1998), the Family Code (1998; the marriage age 18 since 2010, the polygamy criminal and common), the Law on Religion (2009) and the Law on Parental Responsibility (2011; the children out of the mosques), the law of 20 June 2024 against "alien garments" (the hijab fined) and the "idgardak" children's holiday rounds banned; the courts of the districts, the provinces and the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court (1995), the Higher Economic Court, the military courts; the death penalty under moratorium since 2004 (the last executions 2004; the abolition debated); the security committee's cases of "extremism" (the IRPT's members, the Pamiri leaders of 2022 — Faromuz Irgashev, the Khorog defenders, the journalists Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoeva's 21 years; the sentences of 2023–24), the torture reports, the amnesties of the anniversaries (2026's for the 35th); the anti-corruption agency of the President's; the ICC complaint of the IRPT (11 April 2025); the Civil Registry's Tajikized names; the lawyers' bar shrunk by the licensing of 2015 |
| Defense | The Armed Forces of the Republic of Tajikistan (18 February 1993; the ground forces of about 8,800, the air and air-defense forces of about 1,500 by the Factbook's counts, the mobile forces, the border troops of the National Security Committee, the National Guard and the Interior troops — about 20,000 under arms in all by the estimates), conscription of two years at 18 (the round-ups), the Soviet weapons and the Chinese, Russian and American gifts (the Puma and Bayraktar drones bought in 2022, the Iranian drones' plant of 2022, the American border posts); the Russian 201st Military Base (Dushanbe and Bokhtar; about 7,000 men, the largest Russian base abroad; the lease to 2042), the Ayni air base (the Indian and Russian interest), the Chinese outpost of the eastern Pamirs by the reports (2016, expanded 2021); the CSTO (a founder, 1992; the exercises of the Afghan border) and the SCO; the Afghan border of 1,357 km — the Taliban since August 2021 unrecognized, the ISIS-K and Jamaat Ansarullah across it, the drone attacks of 26 and 30 November 2025 on the Chinese camps (five dead), the clash of 24 December 2025, the Chinese and Russian guards' offers; the Defense Minister Sherali Mirzo since 2013; the spending about 1.5% of GDP by the estimates (secret); the civil war's veterans of both sides; the Pamir garrison of Khorog since 2022 |
| Foreign policy | The "open doors" of a small state between giants — Russia (the migrants of a million and their remittances of half the economy, the dual citizenship treaty of 1995, the 201st base to 2042, the CSTO, the CIS chairmanship of 2025 and the summits of Dushanbe of 9–10 October 2025 with Putin's state visit; the Crocus attack of 22 March 2024 by four Tajik gunmen and the raids, deportations and bans on Tajik migrants since; the Russian diesel), China (the largest creditor and investor — the roads, the tunnels, the parliament and government house of Dushanbe, the mines of Zijin and the antimony, the cement, the 1,100 km² ceded in 2011, the outpost of the Pamirs; the workers killed in November 2025), Uzbekistan (the thaw of 2018 after the Karimov years' mines and visas; Rahmon's state visits, the last of 26 March 2026 with the embassy in Tashkent, the ten joint projects), Kyrgyzstan (the treaty of 13 March 2025), Kazakhstan (the fuel), Afghanistan (the one neighbor not recognizing the Taliban, the electricity sold, the border's dead), Iran (the Persian cousin; the thaw of 2022 after the IRPT quarrel of 2015–17, the drones' plant, the oil asked in 2026), the United States (the C5+1, the border aid, the antimony talks of 2026), the European Union (the aid; the sanctions on three banks of 2025), Turkey, the Gulf (the Qatari mosque, the Saudi loans), India (the Ayni base's history), the Aga Khan Development Network of the Pamirs; the water diplomacy of the UN (the Dushanbe Water Conferences, the Decade of 2018–28, the Glaciers year of 2025, the "Decade for Strengthening Peace" of 2027); the Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin since 2013 |
| United Nations | Member since 2 March 1992 (with the other Soviet successors) — the water state of the UN's calendar: the International Year of Freshwater (2003), the Water for Life Decade (2005–15), the Water Action Decade (2018–28) and the International Year of Glaciers' Preservation (2025) all Tajikistan's resolutions, the Dushanbe Water Conferences of 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024 and the Glaciers Conference of 29–31 May 2025, the World Day for Glaciers (21 March) since 2025, the "Decade for Strengthening Peace for Future Generations" of 2027 the next; the UN Tajikistan Office of Peacebuilding of 2000–07 after the UNMOT mission of the civil war (1994–2000); the UNHCR's Afghan refugees (the deportations of 2025), the WFP's school meals, the UNDP's HDI of 128th; the Human Rights Council's reviews and the special rapporteurs' unanswered calls; the Security Council never; the UNESCO of the five sites and the biosphere; the World Bank's Rogun money (US$350 million of 2024 and US$300 million of 30 June 2026) |
| Other memberships | The Commonwealth of Independent States (21 December 1991; the chair of 2025), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (1992/2002), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (a founder, 15 June 2001; the summit of Dushanbe 2021), the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (1992), the Economic Cooperation Organization (1992), the OSCE (1992; the observers refused in 2025), the Organization of Turkic States never (the Persian state of the five), the Eurasian Economic Union not a member (the observer talk of every year; the Russian pressure), the WTO (2 March 2013), the IMF and the World Bank (1993), the ADB (1998), the AIIB (2016), the Islamic Development Bank, the EBRD, the Non-Aligned Movement observer, the Aga Khan Development Network's compact; the CASA-1000 of the four (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan), the CAREC corridors, the Belt and Road (2013); the Asian Football Confederation and the Olympic movement (1993) |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$17.5 billion (2025) and US$20.4 billion projected for 2026 by the IMF's World Economic Outlook of April 2026 — the 138th economy of the world by the counts, the smallest of Central Asia's five, about 165 billion somoni at home by the state's count of 2025; the remittances of the migrants (46% of GDP in 2025 by the World Bank's count) beside it, the gold and the antimony in the exports, the Rogun works in the investment; US$12 billion in 2023, US$5.6 billion in 2010, US$2.5 billion in 2005; the doubling of the decade |
|---|---|
| GDP per capita | About US$1,690 (2025) and US$1,940 projected for 2026 by the IMF — the 182nd of the world and the lowest of the former Soviet Union; the migrants' US$8 billion or so a year by the estimates the household income the figure misses; the wage about US$250 a month by the counts (the state's 2,500 somoni), the teachers' and doctors' US$150, the pensions' US$50; the poverty under US$4.20 a day at 14.8% (2025) from 18.1% in 2023 |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$6,170 (2025) and US$6,620 (2026) by the IMF — the PPP economy about US$64 billion in 2025 and US$70 billion in 2026 (the 121st of the world), a third of Uzbekistan's a head and a sixth of Kazakhstan's; the cheap bread, the plov and the rent of the villages the prices' floor |
| GDP growth | 8.4% in 2025 by the World Bank's and the IMF's counts (8.4% in 2024, 8.3% in 2023 — the third year above 8%, the fastest of the region) on the remittances (+30.5% in 2025), the gold and the antimony exports (+31.6%), the Rogun and the construction, the trade and the services; 6.0% for 2026 by the IMF's forecast, 6.5% by the World Bank's, 5.0% for 2027 and 4.8% for 2028 — the slowing with the migrants' Russia (the deportations and the war's economy), the fuel of the Iran war's year, the remittances' fall to 30% of GDP by 2028 in the World Bank's line; the government's counts higher by the habit (8% and more for 2026 by the plan); the risks the Afghan border, the banks under EU sanctions, the loss-making state firms, the disasters |
| Economy by sector | Services about 45% of GDP by the estimates (the bazaars and the trade of the Chinese goods, the transport, the banks of the remittances, the state's wages, the mobile firms), industry about 30% (the aluminum of TALCO at Tursunzoda — the Soviet smelter of 1975 and its imported alumina, about 100,000 metric tons a year from the 517,000 of the peak, the country's largest plant and export of old; the hydropower of the Vakhsh cascade; the gold of Zijin's Zarafshon (about 10 metric tons a year by the estimates) and the silver and antimony of the north; the cement of the Chinese-built kilns (the exports to Uzbekistan and Afghanistan); the textiles of the cotton (the Chinese-Tajik mills), the food processing; the Rogun construction), agriculture about 20% (the cotton of 400,000 metric tons, the wheat, the fruit — the apricots of Isfara, the grapes, the melons, the onions; the cattle and the sheep; half the workers); the remittances 46% of GDP the shadow economy that is the real one; the state's TALCO, Barqi Tojik and the railways, the family's Faroz and the banks, the Chinese firms; the informal 40% |
| Currency and prices | The somoni at 9.24 to the U.S. dollar (29 September 2026) by the National Bank's official rate — from about 10.9 in 2024 and 11.3 in 2022, the rise of 13% of the first half of 2025 on the remittance flood and the dollar's fall, the bank buying dollars to slow it; inflation 3.4% in 2025 by the World Bank's count and 4.1% in August 2026 by the bank's (the band 5% ± 2; 4.8% forecast for 2026 on the fuel and the food), the bread and the flour of Kazakhstan's wheat the price that matters, the fuel of Russia's 91% (the diesel's stop of 2026, the Iranian request); the refinancing rate 7.00% since 2 February 2026 (10% in 2024, 8.25% then 7.75% in 2025), the next meeting 29 October; the reserves of about US$4 billion by the counts, the gold bought from the mines; the ruble's rate the migrants' worry; the dollarization of the savings; the exchange booths of the bazaars |
| Tourism | About 1.5 million visitors in 2025 by the state's count (most from Uzbekistan and Russia; the Western trekkers and the cyclists of the Pamir Highway in the tens of thousands) — the Pamir Highway (the M41; Khorog to Murghab and Osh, the world's second-highest international road), the Wakhan corridor's forts and hot springs (Bibi Fatima), the Fann Mountains and Iskanderkul, the Seven Lakes of Marguzor, Panjakent's Sogdian ruins and Sarazm, Khujand's Timur Malik fortress and the Panjshanbe bazaar, Istaravshan's mosques, Hisor's fortress, the Hulbuk palace and Ajina-Tepa of the new World Heritage, the Kulob shrine, Dushanbe's museums and Navruz; the e-visa of 2016 and the visa-free of the CIS, the GBAO permit, the tourism fund of 2026 by the reports; the winter ski of Safed Dara; the border war's closure of the Kyrgyz roads lifted in 2025; the Committee on Tourism |
| Aluminum, industry and energy | TALCO's aluminum at Tursunzoda (the Soviet smelter of 1975; about 100,000 metric tons a year by the counts from the 517,000 of 1990 and the 400,000 of 2007, the power of Nurek and the alumina from Kazakhstan and China; the country's largest factory and its state's cash of old, the Norwegian Hydro dispute of the 2000s); the hydropower — Nurek (3,015 MW; 1961–80, the 300-m dam the world's tallest to 2013), Rogun (3,780 MW at completion; the dam of 335 m to be the world's tallest — the Soviet start of 1976, the restart of 2016 by Italy's Webuild/Salini, the first unit of 16 November 2018 and the second of 2019 at low head, the World Bank's US$350 million of 2024 and US$300 million of 30 June 2026, the plan of more than US$1 billion in 2026, the third unit and the full height by the 2030s; 14,400 GWh a year at the end, 60% more power), Sangtuda 1 (Russia's, 2009) and 2 (Iran's, 2014), Baipaza, the Kayrakum of the Syr Darya, the Vakhsh cascade's 90% of the electricity; the exports to Afghanistan (the Taliban still paying), Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in summer and the CASA-1000 line to Pakistan (1,300 MW; the Tajik section built, the Afghan section by spring 2027, the commercial start of summer 2027 by Asia-Plus); the winter rationing of the villages to 2024; the gold mines (Zijin's Zarafshon, the Pakrut), the antimony of Anzob (the world's second or third producer), the coal of Fon-Yaghnob, the cement of the Chinese kilns (4 million metric tons), the textiles; the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources of Daler Juma |
| Agriculture and fisheries | About 20% of GDP and half the workers — the cotton of the Vakhsh, the Fergana tip and the Hisor (about 400,000 metric tons of raw cotton a year by the counts from the 900,000 of the Soviet peak; the debts of the farms of the 2000s written off), the wheat (about a million metric tons; the imports from Kazakhstan for the rest), the rice of the Hisor, the potatoes of the mountains, the fruit — the dried apricots of Isfara and Konibodom (the country's sweet export), the grapes and the melons of the Khatlon, the apples of Sughd, the walnuts of the Darvoz, the pomegranates of Khujand, the onions to Russia; the cattle of the courtyards, the sheep and goats of the pastures (the Hisor fat-tailed sheep), the yaks of Murghab, the silk of the Sughd's mulberries, the honey; the irrigation of 720,000 hectares by the Soviet canals and pumps (the electricity's cost), the salinized fields, the water of the Amu Darya shared by the Soviet quotas; the dehkan farms of the land reform, the women's labor of the migrants' villages; the fisheries of the Kayrakum and the Nurek and the trout farms small; the FAO and the World Bank's projects; the Ministry of Agriculture |
| Services and finance | The banks of the remittances — Amonatbank (the state's savings bank), Alif Bank (the fintech of the 2010s), Eskhata of Khujand, Orienbank (the family's by the reports), the Tojiksodirotbank of the crisis of 2016 (the bailout of US$500 million of the two failed banks), the International Bank of Tajikistan, the Spitamen; the National Bank; the three banks under the EU's sanctions of 2025 for the Russia trade by the World Bank's note; the microfinance of the villages (Imon, Humo), the money transfer of Zolotaya Korona and the apps, the mobile money; the Dushanbe Stock Exchange tiny; the insurance small; the telecoms of Tcell (the Aga Khan's, sold), Megafon Tajikistan, Babilon-Mobile and Tojiktelecom (the state's monopoly of the internet gateway, the blocks), the internet of the slow and the watched; the retail of the bazaars (Korvon of Dushanbe, Panjshanbe of Khujand) and the malls of the Chinese-built center; the transport and the customs of the Chinese trucks; the Faroz group of the President's son-in-law dissolved 2019; the aid economy of the NGOs |
| Trade | Exports about US$3 billion (2025) by the counts (+31.6% by the World Bank's) — the gold (the first, to Switzerland and the Emirates by the estimates), the aluminum (TALCO, to Turkey and the Netherlands), the antimony and its concentrates (to Europe, the 2025 surge), the cotton fiber, the electricity (to Afghanistan and Uzbekistan), the dried fruit and the onions (to Russia), the cement (to Afghanistan and Uzbekistan), the zinc and lead; to China, Kazakhstan, Switzerland, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Russia, Afghanistan; imports about US$7 billion by the counts — the fuel (Russia's 91% of the 599,500 metric tons of the first half of 2026), the wheat and flour (Kazakhstan), the machines and the trucks, the alumina, the consumer goods and the cars — from China (the first, about a third), Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Iran; the deficit of US$4 billion paid by the remittances; the current account +12% of GDP in 2025 by the World Bank's count on the transfers; the WTO since 2013, the EAEU outside, the CIS free trade; the Kulma pass to China, the Panji Poyon bridge to Afghanistan, the rail through Uzbekistan since 2018; the Chinese loans' collateral talk |
| Energy | Hydropower about 90% of the electricity (about 20 billion kWh a year; Nurek 3,015 MW, Rogun's two units, Sangtuda 1 and 2, Baipaza, Kayrakum, the small plants of the valleys) with the Dushanbe coal-fired plant of China's building (2014–16; the Fon-Yaghnob coal) for the winter; the paradox of the water tower with the winter cuts (the Vakhsh's low winter flow, the export in summer, the villages on 4 to 6 hours a day in the bad winters to 2024; Rogun the cure at 3,780 MW and the reservoir of 13.3 km³ that lets Nurek run in winter — the World Bank's grants of 2024 and 2026, the Eurobond of 2017 (US$500 million; due 2027), the Green Climate Fund, the Rogun shares sold to the citizens by decree in 2010); CASA-1000 to Pakistan by summer 2027, the exports to Afghanistan (the Taliban paying), Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan; the oil and gas imported (Russia's fuel of 91%, the diesel stop of 2026, the Iranian request of 2.55 million metric tons, the Kazakh supplies; the gas of Uzbekistan cut 2012, the bottles), the Bokhtar block's hopes; the solar of the Pamirs' villages (the Aga Khan's Pamir Energy of Khorog, the 96% coverage of Badakhshan), the wind none; the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources |
| Labor and wages | A labor force of about 2.7 million at home by the counts and about a million abroad — the official unemployment 2% and the real a fifth by the estimates, the underemployment of the villages, the migrants' seasons (the Russian building sites and markets; the deportations of 2024–26, the patent fees, the bans on the Crocus's shadow), the Gulf, Korea and Britain the new; the average wage about 2,500 somoni a month (about US$270) by the state's count of 2026, the minimum 800 somoni by the reports, the teachers and doctors under US$200, the pensions about US$50; the cotton pickers' autumn (the child labor fought since 2010), the women of the fields, the informal 40% and more; the trade unions of the Soviet federation; the Ministry of Labor, Migration and Employment; the Russian language classes for the migrants; the Tajik-Russian agreement on the migrants of 2025 sought |
| Public finances | The budget of about 50 billion somoni for 2026 by the state's count (about US$5.4 billion) — the revenue of the taxes (the VAT of 14 to 15% since the code of 2022, the customs, the TALCO and the mines), the aid and the grants; the deficit −1.4% of GDP in 2025 and −2.2% forecast for 2026 by the World Bank (the Rogun's billion a year); the public debt 18.3% of GDP in 2025 (30% in 2023; the fall by the growth and the repayments) — the Chinese Eximbank's loans (about a third of the external debt; the Dushanbe plant, the roads), the Eurobond of 2017 (US$500 million at 7.125%, due 2027), the World Bank's and ADB's concessional lines, the Rogun's US$5 billion cost by the counts; the defense and security secret; the state firms' losses (Barqi Tojik's debts, TALCO); the anti-corruption agency and the President's men; the 35th anniversary's spending; the Ministry of Finance of Faiziddin Qahhorzoda |
| Income classification | Lower-middle income by the World Bank (since 2015; about US$1,700 a head); medium human development (0.691, 128th); a landlocked developing country of the UN's list; a "remittance economy" of the World Bank's phrase (the highest share of GDP in the world in several years of the 2010s); the WTO's member since 2013; the IMF's Article IV of 2025 |
Transport & infrastructure
| Airports | Dushanbe International (DYU; the hub of Somon Air (2008) and Tajik Air (1924's Soviet line, grounded 2019 and revived in part), the flights to Moscow and the Russian cities of the migrants, Istanbul, Dubai, Urumqi, Tashkent (since 2017), Almaty, Tehran, Frankfurt of old; the terminal of 2014), Khujand (LBD; the north's, the Russian flights), Kulob (TJU), Bokhtar (KQT), Khorog (the Pamir airstrip of the world's most dangerous approaches; the flights when the weather allows), Murghab's strip; the Russian 201st base's aviation at Ayni (the Indian-renovated base of 2010, the Russian use), the Chinese-built Dushanbe runway; Somon Air's Boeings; the Civil Aviation Agency; the mountain helicopters of the rescue |
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| Ports | None — landlocked; the dry ports of the customs at Nizhny Panj (Panji Poyon) on the Afghan bridge, the Kulma pass on the Chinese border, Tursunzoda and Konibodom on the Uzbek, the rail yards of Dushanbe and Khujand; the river craft of the Panj none; the sea 1,500 km away at Karachi through Afghanistan (the CASA road) and by the Iranian Chabahar of the plans; the Kayrakum reservoir's boats of the beaches |
| Railways | About 680 km of the Tajik Railways (Rohi Ohani Tojikiston; 1929's Soviet line from Termez to Dushanbe, the Soviet gauge of 1,520 mm) in three pieces joined by Uzbekistan — the south (Dushanbe–Bokhtar–Kulob, the Vahdat–Yovon line of 2016 that joined the south to the capital without Uzbekistan, the Dushanbe–Termez–Tashkent trains restored in 2018), the north (Khujand–Konibodom of the Fergana loop), the Kulob–Kolkhozobod; the freight of the alumina, the fuel and the cement, the passengers to Moscow (the migrants' trains of five days) and Tashkent; the planned lines — the Tajikistan–Afghanistan–Turkmenistan of the 2013 dream, the China–Kyrgyzstan–Uzbekistan line that passes it by, the Rogun spur; the Chinese-built stations; the Dushanbe railway station of 1957 |
| Roads | About 30,000 km by the counts (14,000 of them paved) — the Pamir Highway (the M41; Dushanbe–Kulob–Khorog–Murghab–Osh, 1,200 km, the Soviet road of 1934–40 at 4,655 m over the Ak-Baital, the world's second-highest international road, the trucks of the Chinese trade and the cyclists), the Dushanbe–Khujand road of the Anzob (Istiqlol) tunnel (5 km; 2006, the Iranian-built "tunnel of death" of the fumes, finished 2015) and the Shahriston tunnel (5.3 km; 2012, the Chinese-built) that joined north and south without Uzbekistan, the Dushanbe–Chanak road to the Uzbek border (the Chinese toll road of 2010), the Kulob–Kalaikhum–Khorog road along the Panj (the Afghan side in sight; the Vahdat crash of 2 July 2026, 11 dead), the Dushanbe–Tursunzoda–Termez, the Kulma pass road to Kashgar (the Karakoram's cousin), the Wakhan track; the winter closures of the passes, the avalanches, the landslides of the loess; the Chinese trucks, the Russian Ladas and the Gulf's used Toyotas; right-hand traffic; the road deaths of the mountain nights |
| City transport | Dushanbe's trolleybuses (1955; the Chinese and Belarusian fleet of the 2020s) and the Chinese buses of 2017 that replaced the marshrutka minibuses of the old order, the taxis of the apps (the Yandex Go of the Russian years, the local apps), the Rudaki Avenue's traffic; Khujand's trolleybuses (1970); the shared taxis between the towns (the Dushanbe–Khujand of the tunnels, the Khorog jeeps of two days), the Pamir Highway's Landcruisers; the bicycles of the villages; the donkeys of the Pamirs' fans; the metro none; the Dushanbe ring road and the flyovers of the 2010s |
| Utilities | Electricity — Barqi Tojik (the state's; the Vakhsh cascade, the Dushanbe coal plant, the winter rationing to 2024, the tariff rises of the World Bank's reform, the split of 2019 into generation, grid and distribution), Pamir Energy of the Aga Khan for Badakhshan (the 96% coverage), the export lines; water — the Dushanbe Vodokanal of the Varzob's water, the villages' standpipes and the canals (half without piped water; the World Bank's and the Swiss projects), the Khujand system; gas — the bottles and the Uzbek pipeline's trickle; the telecoms of Tcell, Megafon and Babilon, Tojiktelecom's gateway and the internet's blocks (Facebook, YouTube and the news sites by turns, the VPNs), the 4G of the cities; the post of the Soviet inheritance; the coal and wood stoves of the villages; the earthquake building code's neglect; the Chinese-built ministries' heat |
| The country | Ismoil Somoni Peak and the Fedchenko Glacier from the Pamir plateau; Lake Karakul and the Ak-Baital pass of the Pamir Highway; Murghab's yaks; the Wakhan's forts of Yamchun and Kaakha and the Bibi Fatima springs; Khorog's botanical garden at 2,300 m; the Bartang valley's hanging villages; Iskanderkul and the Fann Mountains' Kulikalon; the Seven Lakes of Marguzor; Panjakent's Sogdian frescoes and Sarazm; Rudaki's tomb at Panjrud; Khujand's Panjshanbe bazaar and the Sheikh Muslihiddin mosque; Istaravshan's Mugh Teppe; the Kayrakum "Tajik Sea"; Hisor's fortress; Dushanbe's Rudaki Avenue, the flagpole, the National Museum's Buddha and the Navruz Palace; the Nurek dam's blue reservoir; the Hulbuk palace and Ajina-Tepa of Khatlon; the Kulob shrine of Hamadani; the Tigrovaya Balka tugay; the Anzob tunnel's dark; the buzkashi of Navruz; the sumanak stirred all night; the plov of Friday |
History in dates
| c. 3500 – 1500 BC | Sarazm by Panjakent (c. 3500–2000 BC; the proto-urban town of the Zeravshan's metallurgists and the lapis and turquoise trade to the Indus and Mesopotamia, World Heritage 2010), the Bronze Age of the Bactria–Margiana complex on the Oxus (c. 2300–1700 BC), the Andronovo herders of the steppe and their chariots; the earliest tin mines of the Zeravshan |
|---|---|
| c. 1500 – 550 BC | The Iranian peoples of the valleys — the Sogdians of the Zeravshan and the Bactrians of the Oxus, the Saka nomads of the Pamirs; Zoroaster's faith of Bactria by the tradition, the Avesta's Airyanem Vaejah of the legends; the Achaemenid Persians of Cyrus take Sogdiana and Bactria (c. 540 BC; Cyrus's Cyropolis at Istaravshan; the satrapies of the Oxus Treasure's Takht-i Sangin temple) |
| 329 – 125 BC | Alexander crosses the Oxus, storms the Sogdian Rock and founds Alexandria Eschate, "the farthest," at Khujand (329 BC), marries Roxana of Sogdiana (327 BC) and fights Spitamenes' revolt; the Seleucids and the Greco-Bactrian kingdom (250–125 BC; the Oxus temple of Takht-i Sangin, the Greek coins of the Pamirs' passes), the Yuezhi and the Saka overrun it |
| 125 BC – 651 | The Kushans of the Buddhist stupas (the 1st–3rd centuries; the Silk Road's middlemen), the Sasanian Persians and the Hephthalites (the 5th century), the Sogdian city-states of Panjakent and Bunjikat under the Turkic khaganates (the 6th–8th centuries; the frescoes of Panjakent, the merchants of China's roads and the Sogdian letters, the Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Manichaean and Christian shrines), the Buddhist monastery of Ajina-Tepa (the 7th century); the Sasanians' end (651) |
| 651 – 819 | The Arab conquest of Transoxiana — Qutayba ibn Muslim's campaigns (705–15), the Talas victory over the Chinese (751), Panjakent's last prince Devashtich crucified (722) and the Mugh documents of his flight, Islam's slow spread and the Persian converts' rise, the Abbasid revolution's Khorasan (750), the Muqanna revolt of the "veiled prophet" of the Zeravshan (776–83) |
| 819 – 999 | The Samanids of Bukhara (819–999) — Ismoil Somoni's rule (892–907) the golden age of the Tajiks' telling: the New Persian renaissance of Rudaki of Panjakent, the commission of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, the youth of Avicenna, the Samanid mausoleum of Bukhara, the silver of the Karamazar mines and the dirhams of the Volga trade, the Turkic slave soldiers who would inherit it; the Karakhanid Turks take Bukhara (999) and the Ghaznavids Khorasan — the Persian dynasty's end and the Turks' millennium |
| 999 – 1220 | The Turkic dynasties over the Persian-speaking towns — the Karakhanids of Samarkand and Uzgen, the Seljuks (the 1040s), the Karakhitai (1141), the Khwarazmshahs (the 1200s); Nasir Khusraw's exile among the Pamir Ismailis (1060s–88); Genghis Khan's Mongols sack Khujand (Timur Malik's defense on the Syr Darya's island, 1220) and Samarkand and Bukhara — the Chagatai Khanate over the ruins |
| 1220 – 1500 | The Chagatai Mongols and their Islamization; Timur's empire from Samarkand (1370–1405) and the Timurids' Persian court (Ulugh Beg, Jami, Navoi), Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani's mission to Kashmir and his tomb at Kulob (1385), Khujand's Kamol the poet; the Shaybanid Uzbeks take Samarkand and Bukhara (1500) — the Uzbek khanates over the Tajik towns and the Tajik mountains left to their mirs |
| 1500 – 1785 | The Khanate of Bukhara of the Shaybanids and the Janids (the Ashtarkhanids) over the Zeravshan, Hisor and Khatlon, the Khanate of Kokand founded (1709) over Khujand and the Fergana, the mountain principalities of Darvoz, Karategin, Shughnan and Wakhan on their own under their mirs, the Afghans of Badakhshan's south; the Bukharan Jews and the Tajik towns' trades, the Naqshbandi Sufis, the Persian of the courts and the Chagatai of the khans; the Persian Nadir Shah's raid (1740) |
| 1785 – 1868 | The Manghit emirs of Bukhara (from 1785; Shah Murad, Nasrullah the "butcher") and their beks of Kulob and Hisor, Kokand's khans over Khujand and Ura-Tyube, the wars of the two over the Fergana; the Great Game's British and Russian agents; the Russians take Tashkent (1865), Khujand (1866) and Ura-Tyube, beat the emir at Irjar and Zerabulak (1866–68) and take Samarkand (1868) — the Emirate a protectorate |
| 1868 – 1917 | The Russian Turkestan — the Samarkand oblast of Khujand and Ura-Tyube, the Fergana oblast, the Emirate's Eastern Bukhara of the mountains under Manghit beks (the Kulob and Hisor of the emir's), the Pamirs divided with the Afghans and the British (the boundary commission of 1895; the Wakhan corridor left to Afghanistan, the Russian post at Khorog 1896), the cotton of the Fergana, the railway to Khujand's Bekabad (1899), the Sarez earthquake (18 February 1911); the Andijan rising of 1898, the revolt of 1916 against the wartime labor draft; the Tsar's fall (1917) and the Bolsheviks of Tashkent |
| 1917 – 1929 | The Basmachi war of the mountains — the Red Army takes Bukhara (September 1920; the emir flees to Dushanbe and then Kabul), the Bukharan People's Soviet Republic (1920–24), Enver Pasha's Basmachi at Dushanbe (1921–22; killed at Baljuvon 4 August 1922), Ibrahim Bek's raids to 1931; the national delimitation of 1924 — the Tajik ASSR within Uzbekistan (14 October 1924; Dushanbe the capital, Samarkand and Bukhara left to the Uzbeks, the wound of the century), the Tajik SSR of the Union (5 December 1929; Khujand added), the Latin script (1928) |
| 1929 – 1953 | Stalin's republic — Stalinabad (1929–61), the collectivization and the cotton's kolkhozes, the Vakhsh valley's canals of the 1930s (the deportees' labor), the purges of 1937 (the first secretaries and the intelligentsia shot; Ayni's survival), the Cyrillic script (1940), the war of 1941–45 (about 300,000 sent and tens of thousands dead by the counts; the factories evacuated), the Khait earthquake of 10 July 1949 (7,200 to 28,000 dead), the Uzbek and Tajik quarrel of the intellectuals over Samarkand; Bobojon Ghafurov the first secretary of 1946–56 and the historian of "The Tajiks" |
| 1953 – 1970 | The Soviet building — the Academy of Sciences (1951), the Kayrakum dam (1956), the Dushanbe of Stalinabad's renaming (1961) and the avenues, the Nurek dam begun (1961), the universities and the 99% literacy, the cotton monoculture of the Vakhsh and the Fergana, the Ura-Tyube renamed Leninabad's neighbor, the Yaghnobis deported from their valley to the cotton (1970); Jabbor Rasulov the first secretary (1961–82); the population from 1.5 million (1950) to 3 million (1970) |
| 1970 – 1985 | The aluminum smelter of Tursunzoda (1975; the Regar of the Soviet map), Nurek finished (1980; 300 m, the world's tallest dam to 2013), the Rogun start (1976), the Pamir Highway's tarmac and the Anzob road, the cotton of 900,000 metric tons and the Aral's dying, the population to 4.5 million (1985); the Afghan war of 1979–89 across the Panj (the Tajik conscripts and interpreters, the border bases, the mujahideen's shadow); Rasulov's death (1982) and Rahmon Nabiyev's first secretaryship (1982–85), removed by Gorbachev for corruption |
| 1985 – 1991 | Perestroika and the awakening — the language law of 22 July 1989 (Tajik the state language), the Rastokhez movement, the Dushanbe riots of 12–14 February 1990 (the rumor of the Armenian refugees' flats; 25 dead, the troops), the Democratic Party (1990) and the Islamic Renaissance Party (1990/91), the sovereignty declaration (24 August 1990), Qahhor Mahkamov's fall after the August coup, the independence declaration (9 September 1991), Rahmon Nabiyev elected president (24 November 1991; the Communist old guard), the CIS at Alma-Ata (21 December 1991) |
| 1992 – 1997 | The civil war — the spring demonstrations of Shahidon and Ozodi squares (March–May 1992), the Government of National Reconciliation (May), the Kulob and Hisor militias of the Popular Front (Sangak Safarov), Nabiyev forced out at gunpoint (7 September 1992), the Supreme Soviet's session at Khujand that made Emomali Rahmon its chairman (19 November 1992), the Popular Front takes Dushanbe (December 1992), the massacres of the Garm and Pamiri people, the United Tajik Opposition's war from Afghanistan (the Rasht valley, the Pamirs, the Tavildara front), the Russian 201st Division and the CIS border troops, the refugees of 600,000, the dead of 50,000 to 100,000 by the counts; the presidential election of 6 November 1994 (Rahmon 58% over Abdumalik Abdullajanov) and the constitution; the UN's UNMOT (1994); the Moscow General Agreement of 27 June 1997 (Rahmon and Said Abdullo Nuri; the opposition's 30% of the posts and the amnesty) — National Unity Day |
| 1998 – 2001 | The peace kept — the opposition's ministers and the IRPT legalized (1999), Mahmud Khudoyberdiyev's Khujand mutiny (November 1998; crushed), the referendum of 26 September 1999 (the seven-year term, the second chamber) and the election of 6 November 1999 (Rahmon 97%), the parliamentary election of 27 February 2000 and the bicameral Majlisi Oli, the Uzbek mines on the border (2000) and the IMU's incursions through the mountains (1999–2000), the somoni (30 October 2000), the drought of 2000–01 and the famine's edge; 9/11 and the Afghan war — the American overflights and the French at Dushanbe airport (2001–14), the Taliban's fall across the Panj |
| 2002 – 2005 | The referendum of 22 June 2003 (two more seven-year terms for the President), the death-penalty moratorium (2004), the Russian 201st Division made a permanent base (2004; the deal that also gave Russia the Nurek space-tracking station), the Russian border guards' handover of the Afghan frontier (2005), the parliamentary election of 27 February 2005 (the PDPT's sweep; the IRPT's two seats; the OSCE's "failed to meet"), the migrants' exodus to Russia in earnest (600,000 by 2005), the Panji Poyon bridge to Afghanistan begun (2005–07), the remittances past a third of GDP |
| 2006 – 2009 | Rahmon's third election (6 November 2006; 80%), the Rahmonov-to-Rahmon of 2007 (the Slavic endings dropped; the name law), the Anzob tunnel opened (2006), the Panji Poyon bridge (2007), the winter of 2008's power and cold crisis (the Nurek at its dead level, the Dushanbe hospitals' dark), the wedding law (2007), the Dushanbe–Chanak toll road and the Chinese loans, the Hanafi rite declared official (2009), the language law of 2009, the Sangtuda 1 plant (2009), the crisis year's remittance fall (2009) |
| 2010 – 2012 | The Rogun share sale of 2010 (the citizens' forced buying, the IMF's frown), the Rasht valley fighting of September 2010 (the ambush of the 28 soldiers on 19 September; the ex-opposition commanders hunted to 2011), the parliamentary election of 28 February 2010, the Chinese land deal ratified (January 2011; 1,100 km²), the parental responsibility law (2011; the children out of the mosques), the Khorog operation of July 2012 (the killing of the security chief Abdullo Nazarov on 21 July and the assault on the Pamiri commanders; about 40 dead), the Uzbek gas cut and the rail blockade (2012), the Shahriston tunnel (2012), the WTO accession signed (December 2012; in force 2 March 2013) |
| 2013 – 2016 | The fourth election (6 November 2013; 84%; the Social Democrats' candidate Oinihol Bobonazarova blocked), the migrants' million and the remittances' 50% of GDP (2013), the Group 24's ban (2014) and Umarali Quvvatov's murder in Istanbul (5 March 2015), the parliamentary election of 1 March 2015 (the IRPT out of the chamber), the Nazarzoda mutiny of 4 September 2015 (the deputy defense minister's attack on Dushanbe and Vahdat; killed in the Romit gorge) and the IRPT's ban (28 August 2015) and terrorist listing (29 September 2015), the mass trials of 2016, the "Leader of the Nation" law (25 December 2015), the referendum of 22 May 2016 (no term limits; the age of 30; the religious parties banned), the Rogun restart with Salini (2016), the bank crisis of 2016 |
| 2017 – 2020 | Rustam Emomali mayor of Dushanbe (12 January 2017); the Eurobond of US$500 million for Rogun (September 2017); the Uzbek thaw — Mirziyoyev's visit of March 2018, the flights and the trains restored, the mines cleared; the Danghara cyclists' attack of 29 July 2018 (four Western cyclists killed by ISIS's claim; the IRPT blamed by the state), the Khujand prison riot of November 2018 and the Vahdat prison riot of May 2019 (the ISIS inmates; 32 dead), Rogun's first unit (16 November 2018) and second (September 2019), the Khorog protests of September 2018; Rustam the chairman of the National Assembly (17 April 2020), the pandemic denied and then admitted (April 2020), the presidential election of 11 October 2020 (Rahmon more than 90%), the Kyrgyz border shootings |
| 2021 – 2022 | The Kyrgyz war of 28 April – 1 May 2021 over the Golovnoy water intake at Vorukh (55 dead, the villages burned); the Taliban take Kabul (15 August 2021) — Dushanbe alone refuses them, the Panjshir's Massoud sheltered, the CSTO exercises on the Panj, the Chinese outpost expanded; the Khorog killing of Gulbiddin Ziyobekov and the protests of November 2021, the Rushan and Khorog operations of 16–18 May and June 2022 (the Pamiri commanders killed, about 40 dead by the counts, hundreds jailed — Faromuz Irgashev and Mamadbokir Mamadbokirov shot, the journalists' 20-year sentences), the Kyrgyz war of 14–20 September 2022 (more than 100 dead, the Batken shelled); the Iranian drone plant (May 2022); the Russian war on Ukraine's migrant rubles and the sanctions' trade |
| 2023 – 2024 | The Asian Cup of January 2024 (the quarterfinal); the Crocus City Hall attack of 22 March 2024 in Moscow (145 dead) by four Tajik gunmen of ISIS-K — the raids, deportations and bans on the Tajik migrants of Russia, the remittances' shock; the "alien garments" law of 20 June 2024 (the hijab banned in public) and the children's holiday rounds; the World Bank's US$350 million for Rogun (December 2024); the Kyrgyz border talks' breakthrough of December 2024; the power rationing eased (2024); the growth of 8.4%; the drone attacks feared on the Afghan border; the Chinese-built parliament and government buildings opened (2024) |
| 2025 | The Kyrgyz border accord announced (21 February) and the treaty signed at Bishkek by Rahmon and Japarov (13 March; the 984 km settled, the wars of 2021–22 closed), the Khujand junction with Uzbekistan (31 March); the Assembly of Representatives election of 2 March (the PDPT 49 of 63; no OSCE observers) and the National Assembly of 28 March (Rustam Emomali re-elected chairman); the IRPT's ICC complaint (11 April); the Rasht earthquake (13 April; one dead); the Dushanbe Glaciers Conference (29–31 May); the Penjikent floods (16 June); the Afghan refugees deported (July); Khuttal's World Heritage (12 July); the Ramit biosphere (27 September); Putin's state visit and the CIS and Central Asia–Russia summits (8–10 October); the drones on the Chinese workers of the Afghan border (26 and 30 November; five dead) and the border clash of 24 December (two guards, three intruders dead); the growth of 8.4% and the remittances' 46%; the rate cut to 7.75% (4 August) |
| 1 January – 30 June 2026 | The rate cut to 7.00% (2 February); the Agency on Statistics' 10.72 million (21 February); the Navruz of 21–24 March; Rahmon's state visit to Uzbekistan and the embassy opened in Tashkent (26 March); the World Bank's Macro Poverty Outlook of April (6.5% for 2026; the EU's sanctions on three banks noted); the Water and AI forum (May); the Bahri Tojik summer water accord with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan; the World Bank's emergency-financing project and its US$300 million grant for Rogun (30 June); the antimony talks with Washington (May); the football league's spring; the Vorukh roads reopened by the treaty |
| 1 July – 29 September 2026 | The Vahdat crash of the Dushanbe–Kulob–Khorog road (2 July; 11 dead); the Russian diesel's stop and the Iranian fuel request of 2.55 million metric tons (August); the Dushanbe Tower of 77 floors begun (August); the gender strategy and the women's protection (August); the 35th Independence Day (9 September; the parade, the lights, the amnesty); the IRPT's exiles elect Islomiddin Saidov chairman in Vilnius after Kabiri's 20 years (19 September); the UN General Assembly's week (September); the Asian Games open at Aichi-Nagoya (19 September; the first bronze); the World Bank delegation and the Korean intelligence-sharing memorandum at the National Bank (25 September); the somoni at 9.24 and the inflation of 4.1% (August); the state as of 29 September 2026 — the election year of 2027 a year away |
| The republic | 35 years since independence, 34 since Rahmon took the chair, 29 since the peace of 1997 — the poorest and youngest state of the former Soviet Union, nine-tenths mountain, its people's remittances half its economy, its dam its hope, its succession its question |
Records & firsts
| The highest peak of the former Soviet Union | Ismoil Somoni Peak, 7,495 m — the Stalin Peak of 1933 (Yevgeny Abalakov's first ascent of 3 September 1933), Communism Peak of 1962–98; three of the five 7,000ers of the "Snow Leopard" — Somoni, Korzhenevskaya and Ibn Sina (Lenin) on the border |
|---|---|
| The longest glacier outside the poles | The Fedchenko Glacier of the Pamirs, 77 km long and up to 1,000 m thick, 700 km² with its tributaries — the longest of the world outside the polar regions, found by Vasily Oshanin in 1878, the Gorbunov station of 1933 at 4,169 m; the 8,000 glaciers of the country losing a third of their ice since 1930 |
| The tallest dam | Nurek on the Vakhsh, 300 m — the tallest dam of the world from 1980 to 2013 (the Jinping-I of China after) and the tallest earth-fill dam still; Rogun, 335 m at completion, to be the tallest of the world by the design, 3,780 MW, the Soviet start of 1976 and the World Bank's grants of 2024 and 2026 |
| The tallest natural dam | The Usoi Dam of Lake Sarez, 567 m high, thrown across the Murghab (Bartang) valley by the landslide of the earthquake of 18 February 1911 that buried the village of Usoi — the tallest natural dam on Earth, holding 17 km³ of water 500 m deep, the outburst feared by five million people downstream by the counts |
| The remittance economy | Remittances of 46% of GDP in 2025 by the World Bank's count and the highest share of any country in several years of the 2010s (about 50% in 2013) — about a million Tajiks in Russia's building sites, the household's income before the state's |
| The youngest and fastest-growing | A median age of about 23, a third under 15 and a natural increase of 2% a year — the youngest and the fastest-growing population of the former Soviet Union; 5.5 million at independence, 10.72 million on 1 January 2026, doubled in 35 years |
| The Pamir Highway | The M41 from Dushanbe to Osh by Khorog and Murghab, 1,200 km over the Ak-Baital pass at 4,655 m — the second-highest international highway of the world (the Karakoram's Khunjerab the first), the Soviet road of 1934–40 on the routes of Marco Polo's tale |
| The oldest town of Central Asia | Sarazm by Panjakent, c. 3500 BC — the proto-urban settlement of the Zeravshan's metallurgists trading lapis and turquoise from the Indus to Mesopotamia, the World Heritage of 2010, the first of Tajikistan's five |
| Alexander's farthest city | Khujand — Alexandria Eschate, "the farthest," founded on the Jaxartes (Syr Darya) in 329 BC at the empire's northeastern edge, the Leninabad of 1936–91, the second city of the country |
| The father of Persian poetry | Rudaki of Panjakent's Panjrud (858–941), the Samanid court's poet of Bukhara, the first great poet of the New Persian tongue and the Tajiks' — the avenue of Dushanbe, the mausoleum of 1958; Ismoil Somoni (892–907) the state's founder on the somoni and the peak |
| The longest civil war of the Soviet fall | 1992–97 — 50,000 to 100,000 dead by the counts, 600,000 refugees, the Moscow accord of 27 June 1997 the one negotiated peace of the post-Soviet wars with the Islamists at the table |
| The longest-ruling of the former Soviet Union | Emomali Rahmon in power since 19 November 1992 — 34 years in 2026, the longest-serving leader of the former Soviet Union and among the longest of the world's; the "Leader of the Nation" without term limits since 2016 |
| The highest mean elevation | About 3,190 m by the Factbook's count — among the three or four highest countries on Earth (Bhutan, Nepal, Kyrgyzstan the rivals); 93% mountain, half above 3,000 m; Murghab at 3,650 m the highest town of the former Soviet Union |
| The hydropower potential | About 527 billion kWh a year, the eighth of the world and the second a head after Norway's by the counts, 4% used — 60% of the Aral Sea basin's water rising in Tajikistan's mountains; the Water Action Decade (2018–28) and the Year of Glaciers (2025) Tajikistan's resolutions at the UN |
| The Olympic gold | Dilshod Nazarov's hammer of Rio 2016 (78.68 m) — the one gold of the country's six medals, the three bronzes of Paris 2024 its best Games; the Asian Cup quarterfinal of 2024 the football's peak |
| The flagpole | 165 m in the Dushanbe park of 2011, the world's tallest for three years (Jeddah's 171 m since 2014, Cairo's 202 m since 2021) and the third still — the flag of 30 by 60 m, 700 kg; the Chinese-built parliament and the Qatari-gifted mosque, Central Asia's largest, beside it; the Dushanbe Tower of 77 floors begun in 2026 by the reports |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Tajikistan?
The Republic of Tajikistan — Jumhurii Tojikiston in Tajik, the Persian of Central Asia written in Cyrillic — the state that declared its independence from the Soviet Union on 9 September 1991 (the Tajik SSR of 1929–91, the Tajik Autonomous SSR inside Uzbekistan of 1924–29 before it) and was recognized on 26 December 1991; Tajikistan (Tojikiston) the short form, TJK the code. The name is "the land of the Tajiks," the Persian-speaking people of Central Asia whom the Turkic newcomers of the Middle Ages called Tajik (Tazik, the Arab and then the Persian-speaker, from the Arab tribe of Tayy by the philologists), with the Persian suffix of place; the Tajiks call their tongue Tojiki and count Rudaki, Ferdowsi and Avicenna as theirs, the Samanid emirs of Bukhara (819–999) as their golden age and Ismoil Somoni as their founder — the currency, the highest peak and the avenue of the capital carry his name. A landlocked country of 143,100 km² between Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, China and Afghanistan, nine-tenths mountain, with 10.72 million people counted at the start of 2026 and the youngest and fastest-growing population of the former Soviet Union, it has been ruled since 1992 by Emomali Rahmon, the "Founder of Peace and National Unity, Leader of the Nation" of the law of 2015, through a civil war (1992–97), a peace, a remittance economy that lives on its migrants in Russia and the Rogun dam that is meant to remake it; a presidential election is due in 2027.
What is the capital of Tajikistan?
Dushanbe — "Monday" in Tajik, for the village's Monday market on the Varzob river, chosen as the capital of the Tajik autonomous republic in 1924 (the town had about 3,000 people; the old Tajik towns of Bukhara and Samarkand had gone to Uzbekistan) and named Stalinabad from 1929 to 1961: the Soviet city of the wide avenues and the plane trees, the pastel neoclassical of Rudaki Avenue, the opera house of 1946, the Ismoil Somoni monument of 1999 in the square of the golden crown, the Palace of the Nation (2008) and the flagpole of 165 m in its park, the world's tallest from 2011 to 2014 and the third now, the National Museum (2013), the Navruz Palace, the Dushanbe Tower of 77 floors begun in 2026 to be the tallest building of Central Asia by the plan, the mosque of 2024 that is the region's largest, the Hisor fortress 25 km west; about 1.29 million people by the count of 1 January 2026, the mayor Rustam Emomali, the President's son, since January 2017. The Varzob valley and the Hisor range rise straight behind it at 800 m above the sea; the winters are mild, the summers hot. Khujand (about 200,000; the Leninabad of the Soviet years, Alexander's Alexandria Eschate of 329 BC on the Syr Darya, the north's capital and the Fergana Valley's Tajik city), Bokhtar (the Qurghonteppa of the cotton south, renamed 2018), Kulob (the President's home region's city; 2,700 years old by the count of its anniversary), Istaravshan, Tursunzoda (the aluminum smelter), Vahdat, Isfara, Panjakent (the Sogdian ruins), Konibodom and Khorog (the capital of the Pamirs, at 2,200 m, about 30,000 people) are the other towns; the country is three-quarters rural.
How big is Tajikistan, and how many people live there?
143,100 km² (55,250 sq mi) by the count of the country's own statistics and the UN's, 144,100 km² by the Factbook's (both stated) — the 94th country of the world, the smallest of the five Central Asian states, about the size of Greece or the U.S. state of Wisconsin, landlocked and 93% mountain: the Pamirs of the east (the "roof of the world," the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of 45% of the land and 2% of the people), the Alay, Zeravshan, Hisor and Turkestan ranges of the center and north, the Fergana Valley's tip around Khujand, the Vakhsh and Hisor valleys and the Khatlon plains of the south where the cotton grows and most of the people live; the borders run 4,130 km — Afghanistan 1,357 km along the Panj and the Amu Darya, Uzbekistan 1,312, Kyrgyzstan 984 (settled by the treaty of 13 March 2025 after the wars of 2021 and 2022), China 477 across the Pamirs. The Agency on Statistics counted 10.72 million people on 1 January 2026, up 2% in a year — 255,100 births against 34,400 deaths in 2025, the fastest natural growth of the former Soviet Union, the population doubled since independence (5.5 million in 1991) and a third under 15, the median age about 23 — the IMF's count 10.4 million for 2025 and the UN's 10.9 million for 2026 (all stated); Khatlon 3.88 million, Sughd 3.02 million, the districts under the republic 2.30 million, Dushanbe 1.29 million and Gorno-Badakhshan 236,000. About 75 people to the square kilometer overall, 500 and more in the valleys, one and two in the eastern Pamirs; about a million Tajiks work abroad, most in Russia, and their remittances are 46% of the economy by the World Bank's count of 2025.
What are the highest and lowest points of Tajikistan?
Ismoil Somoni Peak (Qullai Ismoili Somoni), 7,495 m (24,590 ft), in the Pamirs of the Academy of Sciences Range — the highest point of Tajikistan and of the whole former Soviet Union, Stalin Peak from its first ascent by Yevgeny Abalakov in 1933 to 1962, Communism Peak to 1998, renamed for the Samanid founder; Ibn Sina (Lenin) Peak, 7,134 m, on the Kyrgyz border, Korzhenevskaya Peak, 7,105 m, and Independence (Revolution) Peak, 6,940 m, the other giants of the "Snow Leopard" list; the Fedchenko Glacier below them, 77 km long, the longest glacier of the world outside the polar regions, and the 8,000 glaciers that hold the water of Central Asia; the Pamir plateau of the east at 3,500 to 4,500 m with Murghab, the highest town of the former Soviet Union at 3,650 m, Lake Karakul at 3,900 m and the Ak-Baital pass of the Pamir Highway at 4,655 m; the Zeravshan and Hisor ranges with the Fann Mountains and their lakes (Iskanderkul at 2,195 m), the Anzob pass at 3,372 m under which the Istiqlol tunnel runs. The lowest point is the Syr Darya at about 300 m where it leaves the Fergana Valley for Uzbekistan below Khujand, the Panj and the Amu Darya at about 320 m on the Afghan border the south's floor; Dushanbe stands at about 800 m, Khujand at 340 m, Khorog at 2,200 m; the mean elevation of the country is about 3,190 m, among the highest of any country on Earth. The rivers fall with the land — the Vakhsh through Rogun and Nurek, the Panj and the Amu Darya to the Aral's ghost, the Syr Darya to the north, the Zeravshan to Samarkand and Bukhara — and give Tajikistan the eighth-largest hydropower potential of the world by the counts, 4% of it in use.
What currency does Tajikistan use?
The somoni (ISO code TJS; SM; named for Ismoil Somoni), of 100 dirams — introduced on 30 October 2000 at 1,000 Tajik rubles to one (the Tajik ruble of 1995–2000 had replaced the Russian ruble of the Soviet Union's end), in the notes of 1 to 500 somoni that carry Sadriddin Ayni, Mirzo Tursunzoda, Ismoil Somoni and the Rogun dam, and the coins of 1 to 5 somoni and 5 to 50 dirams; issued by the National Bank of Tajikistan (1991) under Chairman Firdavs Tolibzoda. The somoni stood at 9.24 to the U.S. dollar on 29 September 2026 by the bank's official rate, after a rise of 13% in the first half of 2025 (from about 10.9 in 2024) on the flood of remittances and the dollar's weakness — the migrants' rubles the pipe of the economy, converted at the bazaars of Dushanbe and the apps of the banks; the refinancing rate stands at 7.00% since 2 February 2026 (from 10% in 2024, cut step by step to 7.75% in August 2025 and 7% in 2026; the next meeting 29 October), inflation ran at 4.1% in August 2026 inside the bank's band of 5% plus or minus two, and 3.4% for the whole of 2025 by the World Bank's count with 4.8% forecast for 2026 on the fuel. The economy grew 8.4% in 2025 for the third year running above 8% (the IMF's 6.0% and the World Bank's 6.5% forecast for 2026) on the remittances, the gold, the antimony and the Rogun works, GDP about US$17.5 billion in 2025 and US$20.4 billion in 2026 by the IMF's count, about US$1,700 to US$1,900 a head; the clocks keep Tajikistan Time, UTC+5, all year; Tajikistan drives on the right.
Who governs Tajikistan?
Emomali Rahmon — born 5 October 1952 at Danghara in the Kulob region, the collective-farm chairman whom the Supreme Soviet made its chairman and head of state on 19 November 1992 in the civil war's first winter, President since 16 November 1994 and re-elected in 1999, 2006, 2013 and 2020 (more than 90% by the official counts; no election the OSCE has called free), "Founder of Peace and National Unity, Leader of the Nation" by the law of 2015 with lifelong immunity and the right to run without limit by the referendum of 22 May 2016, which also cut the president's minimum age to 30 — the age his son Rustam Emomali (born 19 December 1987), the mayor of Dushanbe since January 2017 and the chairman of the National Assembly since 17 April 2020, has long passed, the successor everyone names; his daughter Ozoda Rahmon heads the presidential administration. The Prime Minister, Kokhir Rasulzoda, has held the office since 23 November 2013 and runs the government the President appoints; the Supreme Assembly (Majlisi Oli) has the National Assembly (Majlisi Milli) of 33, elected by the local councils and appointed by the President, under Rustam Emomali, and the Assembly of Representatives (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of 63, elected on 2 March 2025 with the President's People's Democratic Party taking 49 seats on a turnout of 85.35%, the Agrarians 7, the Economic Reforms party 5, the Socialists and the Democrats one each, the OSCE declining to observe for want of guarantees; the Islamic Renaissance Party, the civil war's opposition and the parliament's until 2015, is banned as terrorist and its exiled leadership, which elected Islomiddin Saidov chairman in Vilnius on 19 September 2026 after Muhiddin Kabiri's 20 years, is out of reach. The next presidential election is due in 2027 (the term of seven years from October 2020); the Gorno-Badakhshan region's Pamiri protests of 2021–22 were crushed with dozens dead and its leaders jailed; the government's case (the peace of 1997 kept for a generation, the roads, the dams and the 8% growth, the borders settled with Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, the Islamists' violence of the 1990s and of 2015 remembered) and the critics' (one family's state since 1992, no free election or press, the migrants' remittances the real economy, the Pamiris and the pious persecuted) are both stated.
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