Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south. Most of Uzbekistan’s population today belong to the Uzbek ethnic group and speak the Uzbek language, one of the families of Turkic languages.
Uzbekistan has an area of 447,400 square kilometers (172,700 sq mi). It is the 56th largest country in the world by area and the 42nd by population. Among the CIS countries, it is the 5th largest by area and the 3rd largest by population. Uzbekistan lies between latitudes 37° and 46° N, and longitudes 56° and 74° E. It stretches 1,425 kilometers (885 mi) from west to east and 930 kilometers (580 mi) from north to south. Bordering Kazakhstan and the Aral Sea to the north and northwest, Turkmenistan to the southwest, Tajikistan to the southeast, and Kyrgyzstan to the northeast, Uzbekistan is not only one of the larger Central Asian states but also the only Central Asian state to border all the other four. Uzbekistan also shares a short border (less than 150 km or 93 mi) with Afghanistan to the south.
Provinces and districts
Uzbekistan is divided into twelve provinces, one autonomous republic (Karakalpakistan Autonomous Republic), and one independent city (Toshkent city).
Uzbekistan is Central Asia's most populous country. Its 28.1 million people (July 2011 estimate) comprise nearly half the region's total population. The population of Uzbekistan is very young: 34.1% of its people are younger than 14 (2008 estimate).According to official sources, Uzbeks comprise a majority (80%) of the total population. Other ethnic groups include Russians 5.5%, Tajiks 5% (official estimate and disputed), Kazakhs 3%, Karakalpaks 2.5% and Tatars 1.5%
Islam is by far the dominant religion in Uzbekistan, as Muslims constitute 90% of the population while 5% of the population follows Russian Orthodox Christianity, and 5% of the population follows other religion according to a 2009 US State Department release.
The Uzbek language is the only official state language, and since 1992 is officially written in Latin alphabet. Russian is an important language for interethnic communication, especially in the cities, including much day-to-day technical, scientific, governmental and business use. Russian is the main language of over 14% of the population and is spoken as a second language by many more.
Capital (and largest city) – Tashkent (41°16′N 69°13′E)
Ethnic groups - 80.0% Uzbek; 5.5% Russian; 5.0%–5.5% (Official Uzbek Statistics), (30% Foltz, Cordell, Jonson) Tajik, 3.0% Kazakh, 2.5% Karakalpak, 1.5% Tatar, 2.5% Others
Independence-September 1, 1991
Area - Total 447,400 km2 (56th) (172,742 sq mi)
Population – over 27 million(45th)
Density - 61.4/km2 (136th) (159.1/sq mi)
Currency - Uzbekistan som (UZS)
Time zone - UZT (UTC+5)
ISO 3166 code - UZ
Internet TLD - .uz
Calling code - 998