Uzbekistan, officially Republic of Uzbekistan, Uzbek Ŭzbekiston or Ŭzbekistan Respublikasi

Demographic trends

Uzbekistan: Age breakdown
Uzbekistan’s population remains youthful in comparison with those of the western parts of the former Soviet Union, though the population aged slightly and steadily over the decades following its independence. Nearly half the population is in the age range of 25–54. This age structure results from the high birth rate after independence: of all the former Soviet republics, Uzbekistan had the greatest number of mothers with 10 or more living children under the age of 20. The birth rate has since decreased.
Economy of Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan is among the world’s leading cotton producers. It is known for its orchards and vineyards and is also important for raising Karakul sheep and silkworms. Uzbekistan’s mineral and oil and gas reserves are substantial. The country produces and exports a large volume of natural gas. The central bank issues the national currency, the sum.
Resources
The country’s resources include metallic ores; in the Olmaliq (Almalyk) mining belt in the Kurama Range, copper, zinc, lead, tungsten, and molybdenum are extracted. Uzbekistan possesses substantial reserves of natural gas, oil, and coal. The country consumes large amounts of its natural gas, and gas pipelines link its cities and stretch from Bukhara to the Ural region in Russia as well. Surveys show petroleum resources in the Fergana Valley (including major reserves in the Namangan area), in the vicinity of Bukhara, and in Qoraqalpoghiston. The modern extraction of coal began to gain importance, especially in the Angren fields, only during World War II. Hydroelectric dams on the Syr Darya, the Naryn, and the Chirchiq rivers help augment the country’s nuclear-, coal-, and petroleum-powered generation of electricity.
Centuries-old rumours of extensive gold deposits in Uzbekistan evidently arose from a basis in fact. Rich polymetallic ores have been found in the Ohangaron (Akhangaran) field southeast of Tashkent. Miners there extract copper, some gold, lead, molybdenum, tungsten, and zinc. A plant for heat-leaching gold from low-grade ore was built in the mid-1990s by a subsidiary of the Newmont Mining Corporation in the Muruntau field in the Kyzylkum Desert of north-central Uzbekistan. It was intended to be a joint venture with the government, but Newmont Mining Corporation’s share was forfeited in a legal battle in 2007.
Uzbekistan requires greater water resources. By the early 1980s the government considered the shortage of water desperate. Officials in Moscow and Tashkent developed a plan to divert substantial amounts of water out of the Irtysh River far to the north into a pumped system that would aid in watering parts of lower Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. The project was killed, however, before it began, leaving Uzbekistan with chronic water shortages.