Demographics of Central Asia

The nations which make up Central Asia are five of the former Soviet republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, which have a total population of about 76 million.[1][2] Afghanistan is not always considered part of the region, but when it is, Central Asia has a total population of about 122 million (2016); Mongolia and Xinjiang (part of China) is also sometimes considered part of Central Asia due to its Central Asian cultural ties and traditions, although geographically it is East Asian.[1][2] Most central Asians belong to religions which were introduced to the area within the last 1,500 years, such as Sunni Islam, Shia Islam, Ismaili Islam, Tengriism and Syriac Christianity (mostly East Syriac).[3] Buddhism, however, was introduced to Central Asia over 2,200 years ago, and Zoroastrianism, over 2,500 years ago.[4]

Population pyramid of Central Asia in 2023
The ethnolinguistic patchwork of Central Asia in 1992
Map of the countries of Central Asia, Afghanistan (occasionally included), the Caspian Sea, and surrounding countries
Main article: Demographics of Asia

Ethnic groups
See also: Ethnic demography of Kazakhstan, Ethnic groups in Afghanistan, and List of ethnic groups in Tajikistan

The below are demographic data on the ethnic groups in Central Asia[3]

Ethnic Group Center of population in Central Asia Total roughly estimated population in Central Asia
Uzbek Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan 36,000,000
Tajik Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. It includes the Pamiri people, who are officially categorized as Tajiks in Tajikistan. 25,000,000[5]
Kazakh Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan 16,500,000
Kyrgyz Kyrgyzstan 4,900,000[6]
Mongolians Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan 3,237,000
Russians Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan 4,000,000 [7][8][9][10]
Koreans Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan 500,000 [11]
Ukrainian Northern Kazakhstan 250,000 [7][9][10]
Turkmen Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Iran 6,500,000
Volga German Kazakhstan 200,000[9][10]
Uyghur Northwest China, Eastern Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan 13,000,000
Dungan or Hui Northwest China, Kyrgyzstan 10,500,000
Bukharian Jew Uzbekistan 1,000
Tatar Uzbekistan 700,000
Karakalpaks North western Uzbekistan 500,000
Bashkirs Kazakhstan 30,000
Meskhetian Turks Kazakhstan 200,000
Armenians Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan 100,000
Altai Northern Kazakhstan 10,000
Pashtun Afghanistan[12] 12,500,000
Hazara Afghanistan 6,500,000
Aimak Central and Northwest Afghanistan 1,500,000
Nuristani Far eastern and northern Afghanistan 200,000+
Belarusians Northern Kazakhstan 100,000-200,000 [10]
Romanians Kazakhstan 20,000
Greeks Kazakhstan 30,000
Mordvins Kazakhstan 20,000
Moldovans Kazakhstan 25,000
Chechens Kazakhstan 40,000
Poles Northern Kazakhstan 50,000-100,000
Azeri Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan 100,000
Chuvash Northern Kazakhstan 35,000

Genetic history
Further information: Ancient North Eurasian, Indo-Iranians § Genetics, and Genetic studies on Turkish people

Paleolithic and pre-Neolithic Central Asia were initially populated by a distinct population known as "Ancient North Eurasians", and linked to the Botai culture as well as the early Tarim mummies. Bronze Age Central Asia was populated by a mostly West-Eurasian Iranian-speaking peoples, as well as a minority of Paleosiberian peoples. Since the Iron Age, significant migrations from Eastern Asia and South Central Siberia took place, mostly associated with the expansion of Mongolic and Turkic peoples from a region corresponding to modern day Mongolia, transforming Central Asia from a region with largely West-Eurasian ancestry into the mostly Turkic-speaking groups of the present day, who are primarily of East Asian ancestry.[13] Archaeogenetic studies on the remains from Iron Age Pazyryk culture burials suggest that after the end of the Indo-Iranian (Scythian) expansion, beginning in c. the 7th century BC, there was a gradual admixture event with Turkic peoples.[14] The ancestry of modern Central Asian populations is however significantly derived from later Indo-Iranian and Turkic expansions from Europe and Northeast Asia respectively.[15] Populations of farmers and nomadic pastoralists coexisted in Central Asia since the Chalcolithic (4th millennium BC). The two groups differ markedly in descent structure, as pastoralists are organized in exogamous patrilineal clan structures, while farmers are organized in extended families practicing endogamy (cousin marriage). As a consequence, pastoralists have a significantly reduced diversity in patrilineal descent (Y-chromosome) compared to farmers.[16]

The Turkic expansion spread Turkic languages along with 'South Siberian' ancestry westwards, throughout Central Asia, as well as parts of Europe.[17]

The historical Indo-Iranians showed high genetic affinity to the Central European Corded Ware culture, the early medieval Turks, which would largely replace the previous population of Central Asia, had significant Northeast Asian ancestry (c. 60%).[18] There was also substantial Mongolian contributions to certain Central Asian populations, specifically to the Kazakhs or the Hazaras, during the Mongol invasion of Central Asia.[19][20][21][22][23] While modern Turkic-speaking Central Asians derive significant but varying amounts of ancestry from the Northeast Asian gene pool (c. 59.3–69.8%), the Iranian-speaking Central Asians, specifically Yaghnobis and Tajiks, display genetic continuity with Indo-Iranians of the Bronze and Iron Age, and have less Northeast Asian ancestry, associated with the Turkic and Mongolic expansions (7.7–17.1%).[24] Ancestry related to the earliest inhabitants, the Ancient North Eurasians, is still found in low amounts among modern day Central Asians.[24]

Religion
See also: Buddhism in Central Asia, Christianity in Central Asia, and Islam in Central Asia
Religion[3] Approximate population Center of population
Sunni Islam 103,000,000[25][26][27][28][29][30] South and East of region: Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Eastern Xinjiang and Southern Kazakhstan.(most dense in Afghanistan and Uzbekistan)
Buddhism 9,084,000[31][32][33][34][35] 700,000 and 1.5 million Buddhists in Russia, 8.44 million in Xinjiang, 140,000 people in Kazakhstan and Afghanistan; (Mongols, Koreans, Daur, Mongour, Tungusic peoples, Tibetans, Tuvans, Yugur)
Shia Islam 4,000,000 Hazaras, Afghanistan. While a significant number of them are Sunni.
Eastern Christianity 4,000,000 Mainly in northern Kazakhstan, significant communities are also located in the other four Soviet republics in the region.
Atheism and Irreligion 2,500,000+ Throughout the region
Western Christianity 510,000 Kazakhstan
Judaism 27,500 Uzbekistan
Zoroastrianism 10,000 Historically Afghanistan

See also

Bibliography
  • Guarino-Vignon, P., Marchi, N., Bendezu-Sarmiento, J. et al. Genetic continuity of Indo-Iranian speakers since the Iron Age in southern Central Asia. Sci Rep 12, 733 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-04144-4

References
  1. "World Population Prospects 2022". population.un.org. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
  2. "World Population Prospects 2022: Demographic indicators by region, subregion and country, annually for 1950-2100" (XSLX). population.un.org ("Total Population, as of 1 July (thousands)"). United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
  3. "The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency". Cia.gov. Archived from the original on June 1, 2007. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  4. "The History of Zoroastrianism". Archived from the original on 2009-09-25. Retrieved 2010-02-18.
  5. Foltz, Richard (2019). A History of the Tajiks: Iranians of the East. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 1. ISBN 978-1784539559.
  6. "Total population by nationality (assessment at the beginning of the year, people)". Bureau of Statistics of Kyrgyzstan. 2021.
  7. "Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей". Archived from the original on 2010-03-24. Retrieved 2009-01-02.
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-08-25. Retrieved 2012-07-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-02-06. Retrieved 2012-01-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. "Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей". Archived from the original on 2010-03-16. Retrieved 2013-05-02.
  11. Alekseenko, Aleksandr Nikolaevich (2000). Республика в зеркале переписей населения [Republic in the Mirror of the Population Censuses] (PDF). Population and Society: Newsletter of the Centre for Demography and Human Ecology (in Russian). Institute of Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences (47): 58–62. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  12. "Ethnologue report for Southern Pashto: Iran (1993)". SIL International. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Retrieved 5 May 2012.
  13. Damgaard, Peter de Barros; Marchi, Nina; Rasmussen, Simon; Peyrot, Michaël; Renaud, Gabriel; Korneliussen, Thorfinn; Moreno-Mayar, J. Víctor; Pedersen, Mikkel Winther; Goldberg, Amy; Usmanova, Emma; Baimukhanov, Nurbol (May 2018). "137 ancient human genomes from across the Eurasian steppes". Nature. 557 (7705): 369–374. Bibcode:2018Natur.557..369D. doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0094-2. hdl:1887/3202709. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 29743675. S2CID 13670282. These historical events transformed the Eurasian steppes from being inhabited by Indo-European speakers of largely West Eurasian ancestry to the mostly Turkic-speaking groups of the present day, who are primarily of East Asian ancestry.
  14. González-Ruiz, Mercedes; Santos, Cristina; Jordana, Xavier; Simón, Marc; Lalueza-Fox, Carles; Gigli, Elena; Aluja, Maria Pilar; Malgosa, Assumpció (2012). "Tracing the Origin of the East-West Population Admixture in the Altai Region (Central Asia)". PLOS ONE. 7 (11): e48904. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...748904G. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0048904. PMC 3494716. PMID 23152818.
  15. Heyer, Evelyne; Balaresque, Patricia; Jobling, Mark A.; Quintana-Murci, Lluis; Chaix, Raphaelle; Segurel, Laure; Aldashev, Almaz; Hegay, Tanya (2009). "Genetic diversity and the emergence of ethnic groups in Central Asia". BMC Genetics. 10: 49. doi:10.1186/1471-2156-10-49. PMC 2745423. PMID 19723301. Our analysis of uniparental markers highlights in Central Asia the differences between Turkic and Indo-Iranian populations in their sex-specific differentiation and shows good congruence with anthropological data.
  16. Chaix, Raphaëlle; Quintana-Murci, Lluís; Hegay, Tatyana; Hammer, Michael F.; Mobasher, Zahra; Austerlitz, Frédéric; Heyer, Evelyne (2007). "From Social to Genetic Structures in Central Asia". Current Biology. 17 (1): 43–48. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2006.10.058. PMID 17208185. S2CID 16405468.
  17. Uchiyama, Junzo; Gillam, J. Christopher; Savelyev, Alexander; Ning, Chao (2020). "Populations dynamics in Northern Eurasian forests: a long-term perspective from Northeast Asia". Evolutionary Human Sciences. 2. doi:10.1017/ehs.2020.11. ISSN 2513-843X. S2CID 219470000.
  18. Guarino-Vignon, Perle; Marchi, Nina; Bendezu-Sarmiento, Julio; Heyer, Evelyne; Bon, Céline (2022-01-14). "Genetic continuity of Indo-Iranian speakers since the Iron Age in southern Central Asia". Scientific Reports. 12 (1): 733. Bibcode:2022NatSR..12..733G. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-04144-4. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 8760286. PMID 35031610.
  19. Zhao, Jing; Wurigemule, null; Sun, Jin; Xia, Ziyang; He, Guanglin; Yang, Xiaomin; Guo, Jianxin; Cheng, Hui-Zhen; Li, Yingxiang; Lin, Song; Yang, Tie-Lin; Hu, Xi; Du, Hua; Cheng, Peng; Hu, Rong (December 2020). "Genetic substructure and admixture of Mongolians and Kazakhs inferred from genome-wide array genotyping". Annals of Human Biology. 47 (7–8): 620–628. doi:10.1080/03014460.2020.1837952. ISSN 1464-5033. PMID 33059477. S2CID 222839155.
  20. Estimating the impact of the Mongol expansion upon the gene pool of Central Asians. ЛД Дамба · 2018
  21. Zhabagin, Maxat; Sabitov, Zhaxylyk; Tarlykov, Pavel; Tazhigulova, Inkar; Junissova, Zukhra; Yerezhepov, Dauren; Akilzhanov, Rakhmetolla; Zholdybayeva, Elena; Wei, Lan-Hai; Akilzhanova, Ainur; Balanovsky, Oleg; Balanovska, Elena (2020-10-22). "The medieval Mongolian roots of Y-chromosomal lineages from South Kazakhstan". BMC Genetics. 21 (1): 87. doi:10.1186/s12863-020-00897-5. ISSN 1471-2156. PMC 7583311. PMID 33092538.
  22. Khussainova, Elmira; Kisselev, Ilya; Iksan, Olzhas; Bekmanov, Bakhytzhan; Skvortsova, Liliya; Garshin, Alexander; Kuzovleva, Elena; Zhaniyazov, Zhassulan; Zhunussova, Gulnur; Musralina, Lyazzat; Kahbatkyzy, Nurzhibek; Amirgaliyeva, Almira; Begmanova, Mamura; Seisenbayeva, Akerke; Bespalova, Kira (2022). "Genetic Relationship Among the Kazakh People Based on Y-STR Markers Reveals Evidence of Genetic Variation Among Tribes and Zhuz". Frontiers in Genetics. 12: 801295. doi:10.3389/fgene.2021.801295. ISSN 1664-8021. PMC 8777105. PMID 35069700.
  23. Zhabagin, Maxat; Balanovska, Elena; Sabitov, Zhaxylyk; Kuznetsova, Marina; Agdzhoyan, Anastasiya; Balaganskaya, Olga; Chukhryaeva, Marina; Markina, Nadezhda; Romanov, Alexey; Skhalyakho, Roza; Zaporozhchenko, Valery; Saroyants, Liudmila; Dalimova, Dilbar; Davletchurin, Damir; Turdikulova, Shahlo (2017-06-08). "The Connection of the Genetic, Cultural and Geographic Landscapes of Transoxiana". Scientific Reports. 7 (1): 3085. Bibcode:2017NatSR...7.3085Z. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-03176-z. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 5465200. PMID 28596519.
  24. Shan-Shan Dai, Xierzhatijiang Sulaiman, Jainagul Isakova, Wei-Fang Xu, Najmudinov Tojiddin Abdulloevich, Manilova Elena Afanasevna, Khudoidodov Behruz Ibrohimovich, Xi Chen, Wei-Kang Yang, Ming-Shan Wang, Quan-Kuan Shen, Xing-Yan Yang, Yong-Gang Yao, Almaz A Aldashev, Abdusattor Saidov, Wei Chen, Lu-Feng Cheng, Min-Sheng Peng, Ya-Ping Zhang (25 August 2022). "The Genetic Echo of the Tarim Mummies in Modern Central Asians". academic.oup.com. Retrieved 2022-12-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  25. Min Junqing. The Present Situation and Characteristics of Contemporary Islam in China. JISMOR, 8. 2010 Islam by province, page 29. Data from: Yang Zongde, Study on Current Muslim Population in China, Jinan Muslim, 2, 2010.
  26. Religious Composition by Country, 2010–2050 | Pew Research Center Archived 2017-08-02 at the Wayback Machine. Pewforum.org (2 April 2015). Retrieved on 2017-01-20.
  27. "Mapping the Global Muslim Population: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Muslim Population" (PDF). Pewforum.org. October 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 June 2018. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  28. Mapping the Global Muslim Population. A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Muslim Population Archived 2011-05-19 at the Wayback Machine. Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life (October 2009)
  29. "Religious Composition by Country, 2010-2050". Pewforum.org. 2 April 2015. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  30. "The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency". Cia.gov. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  31. "Religious Intelligence - Country Profile: Kazakhstan (Republic of Kazakhstan)". 30 September 2007. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  32. "Religious Intelligence - Country Profile: Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyz Republic)". 6 April 2008. Archived from the original on 6 April 2008. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  33. Religious Freedom Page Archived August 29, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  34. "Turkmenistan". State.gov. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  35. "The results of the national population census in 2009". Agency of Statistics of the Republic of Kazakhstan. 12 November 2010. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 21 January 2010.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.