Census: Ethnic Uzbeks account for nearly 90% of Uzbekistan's population

The remaining 2.7 percent of the population did not participate in the census due to various reasons. Officials noted that this rate of omission falls well within standard international norms, pointing out that some countries experience non–participation rates of 10 percent or higher during similar large–scale demographic exercises. The data follows earlier confirmation that the total population of Uzbekistan has officially surpassed the 39 million mark.

The newly released figures provide a comprehensive look into the ethnic composition of the country. Ethnic Uzbeks remain the largest demographic group by a significant margin, totaling 34,901,261 people and accounting for 89.4 percent of the total population.

Other registered ethnic groups in the country include 1,278,941 Tajiks (3.27 percent), 841,397 Karakalpaks (2.15 percent), and 707,329 Kazakhs (1.81 percent). The census also recorded 606,528 Russians (1.55 percent), 219,091 Kyrgyz (0.56 percent), and 194,757 Turkmen (0.50 percent), while individuals from various other nationalities comprise the remaining 300,010 residents (0.77 percent).

In terms of language dynamics, a substantial majority of the population identifies Uzbek as their native tongue. Approximately 35.7 million people, or 91.3 percent of the population, listed Uzbek as their mother tongue. This linguistic indicator stands 1.9 percentage points higher than the total proportion of ethnic Uzbeks, highlighting the widespread use of the state language among diverse ethnic communities across the republic.