atitude continental, hot summers, mild winters;
semiarid to polar in Pamir Mountains

Terrain: Pamir and Alay mountains dominate landscape; western
Fergana Valley in north, Kofarnihon and Vakhsh Valleys in southwest

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Syrdariya 300 m
highest point: Qullai Kommunizm 7,495 m

Natural resources: significant hydropower potential, some
petroleum, uranium, mercury, brown coal, lead, zinc, antimony,
tungsten

Land use:
arable land: 6%
permanent crops: 0%
permanent pastures: 25%
forests and woodland: 4%
other: 65% (1993 est.)

Irrigated land: 6,390 sq km (1993 est.)

Natural hazards: NA

Environment--current issues: inadequate sanitation facilities;
increasing levels of soil salinity; industrial pollution; excessive
pesticides; part of the basin of the shrinking Aral Sea suffers from
severe overutilization of available water for irrigation and
associated pollution

Environment--international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Ozone Layer
Protection
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography--note: landlocked

People

Population: 6,102,854 (July 1999 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 41% (male 1,250,344; female 1,224,355)
15-64 years: 55% (male 1,661,488; female 1,681,839)
65 years and over: 4% (male 122,065; female 162,763) (1999 est.)

Population growth rate: 1.43% (1999 est.)

Birth rate: 27.46 births/1,000 population (1999 est.)

Death rate: 7.85 deaths/1,000 population (1999 est.)

Net migration rate: -5.34 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1999 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: 0.75 male(s)/female
total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (1999 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 114.78 deaths/1,000 live births (1999 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 64.28 years
male: 61.15 years
female: 67.57 years (1999 est.)

Total fertility rate: 3.48 children born/woman (1999 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

Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
tota