The Demographics of Turkmenistan is about the demographic

Demographics

Demographics are the most recent statistical characteristics of a population. These types of data are used widely in sociology , public policy, and marketing. Commonly examined demographics include gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, and even location...

 features of the population

Population

A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...

 of Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia is one of the Turkic states in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...

, including population growth, population density

Population density

Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

, ethnicity

Ethnic group

An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...

, education level, health, economic status, religious affiliations, and other aspects of the population. The ethnic majority in Turkmenistan call themselves Turkmen

Turkmen people

The Turkmen are a Turkic people located primarily in the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and northeastern Iran. They speak the Turkmen language, which is classified as a part of the Western Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages family together with Turkish, Azerbaijani, Qashqai,...

.

Demographic trends

The population of Turkmenistan increased from 1.5 million in the 1959 census to 4.5 million in the 1995 census. The population continued growing to over 5 million in 2001-2006.

Vital statistics

	Average population (x 1000)	Live births	Deaths	Natural change	Crude birth rate (per 1000)	Crude death rate (per 1000)	Natural change (per 1000)
1979	2 792	97 511	21 583	75 928	34.9	7.7	27.2
1980	2 861	98 069	23 863	74 206	34.3	8.3	25.9
1981	2 931	100 627	24 883	75 744	34.3	8.5	25.8
1982	3 003	104 340	23 984	80 356	34.7	8.0	26.8
1983	3 076	108 171	26 015	82 156	35.2	8.5	26.7
1984	3 151	111 083	25 760	85 323	35.3	8.2	27.1
1985	3 229	116 285	26 080	90 205	36.0	8.1	27.9
1986	3 310	122 337	27 865	94 472	37.0	8.4	28.5
1987	3 393	126 787	26 802	99 985	37.4	7.9	29.5
1988	3 479	125 887	27 317	98 570	36.2	7.9	28.3
1989	3 571	124 992	27 609	97 383	35.0	7.7	27.3
1990	3 668	125 343	25 755	99 588	34.2	7.0	27.2
1991	3 772	126 248	27 403	98 845	33.5	7.3	26.2
1992	3 883	131 034	27 509	103 525	33.7	7.1	26.7
1993	3 993	130 708	31 171	99 537	32.7	7.8	24.9
1994	4 096	129 700	32 067	97 633	31.7	7.8	23.8

Ethnic groups

The table shows the ethnic composition of Turkmenistan's population (in percent) between 1926 and 1995. There has been a sharp decline in the European ethnic groups (Russians and Ukrainians) and also Tatars and Kazakhs since independence (as captured in the 1979 and 1995 censuses). Uzbeks are now the second largest ethnic group in Turkmenistan, with Russians relegated to the third place. According to data announced in Ashgabat in February 2001, 91% of the population are Turkmen, 3% are Uzbeks, and 2% are Russians. Between 1989 and 2001 the number of Turkmen in Turkmenistan doubled (from 2.5 to 4.9 million), while the number of Russians dropped by two-thirds (from 334,000 to slightly over 100,000). However, this rapid growth seems rather unlikely.

Population of Turkmenistan according to ethnic group 1926–1995

Ethnic group	census 19261		census 19392		census 19593		census 19704		census 19795		census 19896		census 1995
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Turkmens	719,792	71.9	741,488	59.2	923,724	60.9	1,416,700	65.6	1,891,695	68.4	2,536,606	72.0	3,403,639	76.7
Uzbeks Uzbeks The Uzbeks are a Turkic ethnic group in Central Asia. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, and large populations can also be found in Afghanistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Pakistan, Mongolia and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China...	104,971	10.5	107,451	8.6	125,231	8.3	179,498	8.3	233,730	8.5	317,333	9.0	408,259	9.2
Russians Russians The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....	75,357	7.5	232,924	18.6	262,701	17.3	313,079	14.5	349,170	12.6	333,892	9.5	297,319	6.7
Kazakhs Kazakhs The Kazakhs are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ....	9,471	0.9	61,397	4.9	69,522	4.6	68,519	3.2	79,539	2.9	87,802	2.5	88,752	2.0
Tatars Tatars Tatars are a Turkic speaking ethnic group , numbering roughly 7 million.The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of around 5.5 million, about 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan.Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,...	4,769	0.5	19,517	1.6	29,946	2.0	36,457	1.7	40,432	1.5	39,277	1.1	35,501	0.8
Azeris	4,229	0.4	7,442	0.6	12,868	0.8	16,775	0.8	23,548	0.9	33,365	0.9		0.8
Armenians Armenians Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....	13,859	1.4	15,996	1.3	19,696	1.3	23,054	1.1	26,605	1.0	31,829	0.9		0.8
Balochi Baloch people The Baloch or Baluch are an ethnic group that belong to the larger Iranian peoples. Baluch people mainly inhabit the Balochistan region and Sistan and Baluchestan Province in the southeast corner of the Iranian plateau in Western Asia....	9,974	1.0	5,396	0.4	7,626	0.5	12,374	0.6	18,584	0.7	28,280	0.8		0.8
Ukrainians Ukrainians Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...	6,877	0.7	21,778	1.7	20,955	1.4	35,398	1.6	37,118	1.3	35,578	1.0		0.5
Others	51,615	5.2	38,494	3.1	44,106	2.9	57,026	2.6	64,327	2.3	78,755	2.2		1.7
Total	1,000,914		1,251,883		1,516,375		2,158,880		2,764,848		3,522,717		4,437,600
1 Source: http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/ussr_nac_26.php. 2 Source: http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/ussr_nac_39.php. 3 Source: http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/sng_nac_59.php. 4 Source: http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/sng_nac_70.php. 5 Source: http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/sng_nac_79.php. 6 Source: http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/sng_nac_89.php.

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

For more information, see this country's entry in the CIA World Factbook

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook as of September 2009, unless otherwise indicated.

Age structure

0-14 years: 28.9% (male 713,698/female 697,222)

15-64 years: 66.9% (male 1,618,678/female 1,646,992)

65 years and over: 4.3% (male 90,352/female 117,945) (2009 est.)

Sex ratio

at birth:
1.05 male(s)/female

under 15 years:
1.02 male(s)/female

15-64 years:
0.98 male(s)/female

65 years and over:
0.77 male(s)/female

total population:
0.98 male(s)/female (2009 est.)

Infant mortality rate

Total: 45.36 deaths/1,000 live births

Male: 53.85 deaths/1,000 live births

Female: 36.46 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)

Life expectancy at birth

total population:
67.87 years

male:
64.94 years

female:
70.95 years (2009 est.)

Language

Turkmen

Turkmen language

Turkmen is the national language of Turkmenistan...

 72%, Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

 12%, Uzbek

Uzbek language

Uzbek is a Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 25.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia...

 9%, other 7%.

Nearly 22% of the non-Russian population indicated in the 1995 census that they spoke Russian fluently. According to Ethnologue

Ethnologue

Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language and support their efforts in language development.The Ethnologue...

, up to 50% claim "good knowledge" of Russian.

Other languages include the Balochi language

Balochi language

Balochi is a Northwestern Iranian language. It is the principal language of the Baloch of Balochistan, Pakistan, eastern Iran and southern Afghanistan. It is also spoken as a second language by some Brahui. It is designated as one of nine official languages of Pakistan.-Vowels:The Balochi vowel...

, which was spoken by 36,600 people in 1995.

Literacy

definition:
age 15 and over can read and write

total population:
98.8%

male:
99.3%

female:
98.3% (1999 est.)