Country Comments

Uzbekistan is an arid landlocked country where its growing population is putting stress on its resources. The current population is twice what can be sustained with the country’s available renewable resources. Intense agriculture practices around grains and cotton have led to heavy use of pesticides and fertilizers causing water pollution and the depletion of water supplies, leaving the land degraded and the Aral Sea and certain rivers half-dry. (1)

Uzbekistan’s president has made it a priority to pursue a policy of increasing the role and status of women in society and address the gender-imbalance in appointments to senior public positions. Empowering women will additionally bring fertility rates down which will help in slowing population growth and its environmental impacts and eventually begin reversing it.

Emigration will also help reduce population growth. According to data from the State Statistics Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan (UZSTAT), the total number of Uzbek citizens who emigrated in 2017 was 6.8 million, and in 2018 it was 13.8 million. Among the main reasons for migration there are family reunification (58%) and working abroad (42%). Numerous young, skilled and highly educated people leave Uzbekistan, which has a considerable impact on the nation’s capital and several other main cities. However, most emigrants do not possess higher education qualifications and 40% of them work in the building sector, 20% in production, and the remaining 40% in the catering, cleaning, transportation, production and retail sectors. (2)

(1) https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/uzbekistan/#military-and-security

(2) https://migrants-refugees.va/about/country-profiles/