Contemporary Tajiks are the descendants of ancient Aryan also known as Iranian inhabitants of Central Asia, in particular the Soghdians and the Bactrians, and with a very small degree of possibly mixture of non-Aryan peoples.

Until the 20th century, people in the region used two types of distinction to identify themselves: way of life - either nomadic or sedentary - and place of residence. Although to some degree intermixed, the nomads are always known to be Turko-Mongol origin and sedentary people are known to be of Aryan decent, Tajiks. The distinction became less evident with gradual sedentarization of former Asian Turko-Mongol tribes and gradual inrermix of Asian with Caucasian Tajiks who borrowed to speak both languages. With formation of five Central Asian republics under USSR many Tajiks were forced to sign themselves as Uzbek to avoid prosecution in current Uzbekistan. Thus almost 10 million Tajiks were forcefully Uzbekisized when Turkization promoted by Pan-Turkists failed. The majority of Tajiks remained outside of their historic lands that is in Uzbkeistan almost 10 Million, Afghanistan 7 million, Iran 2 million. Tajiks are fair-skinned, relatively tall, Caucasian people the first inhabitants of Central Asia.

Population: 6,863,752 (July 2003 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 39.8% (male 1,376,244; female 1,353,108)
15-64 years: 55.5% (male 1,896,509; female 1,915,334)
65 years and over: 4.7% (male 140,993; female 181,564) (2003 est.)

Population growth rate: 2.13% (2003 est.)

Birth rate: 32.78 births/1,000 population (2003 est.)

Death rate: 8.46 deaths/1,000 population (2003 est.)

Net migration rate: -3.06 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2003 est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.78 male(s)/female
total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2003 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
total: 113.43 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 99.63 deaths/1,000 live births (2003 est.)
male: 126.58 deaths/1,000 live births

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 64.37 years
male: 61.39 years
female: 67.5 years (2003 est.)

Total fertility rate: 4.17 children born/woman (2003 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Tajikistani(s)
adjective: Tajikistani

Ethnic groups: Tajik 64.9%, Uzbek 25%, Russian 3.5% (declining because of emigration), other 6.6%

Religions: Sunni Muslim 80%, Shi'a Muslim 5%

Languages: Tajik (official), Russian widely used in government and business, Shugni (spoken in area near Khorog)

Literacy: Education is required through high school but completion rate is under 90%.
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99.4%
male: 99.6%
female: 99.1% (2003 est.)

See also : Tajikistan