Page last modified 21 August 2023

Kyrgyzstan

Community

Area 199,951 square kilometres (land area 191,801 square kilometres)

Population,

1,459,301 (1939)

1,767,100 (1951)

2,170,000 (1960)

2,970,000 (1970) +36.9%

3,610,000 (1980) +21.5%

4,370,000 (1990) +21.1%

4,920,000 (2000) +12.6%

5,400,000 (2010) +9.8%

6,592,000 (2020) 22.1%

Ethnicity, % Many Germans were� deported from the western USSR to central Asia in 1941.

	Chinese	German	Kirghiz	Russian	Ukrainian	Uzbek
1926		0.4	66.6	11.7	6.5	11.1
1939		0.8	51.7	20.8	9.4	10.4
1959		1.9	40.5	30.2	6.6	10.6
1970		3.1	43.9	29.5	4.1	11.3
1979		2.9	47.9	25.9	3.1	12.1
1989		2.4	52.4	21.5	2.5	12.9
1999		0.4	64.0	12.5	1.0	13.8
2010		0.2	70.0	8.7	0.5	14.5
2016	1.1	0.1	73.0	6.0		14.6

Religion, %

	Christian Russian Orthodox	Muslim Sunni
2001	25.0	75.0
2009		86.3

Birth and death rates Below replacement rate = 2.1

	Fertility Rate	Birth Rate	Infant Mortality	Death Rate	% Aged Under 15	% Aged Over 65	% Urban
1960	5.5	40.7 (+24.1)		16.6	36.4	7.1	34.2
1970	5.2	32.3 (+21.1)	111.0	11.2	41.7	6.2	37.5
1980	4.4	30.0 (+20.1)	77.0	9.9	36.9	5.8	38.6
1990	3.6	29.1 (+22.2)	54.0	6.9	37.4	5.0	37.8
2000	2.4	20.0 (+13.0)	42.0	7.0	34.9	5.5	35.3
2010	3.1	27.0 (+20.4)	26.0	6.6	29.9	4.5	35.3
2015	3.2	27.4 (+21.2)	19.9	5.8	31.1	4.3	35.7
2017	3.0	24.8 (+19.4)	17.9	5.4
2018			16.9		32.4	4.5	36.4

Life expectancy,

56.1 (1960); 52.0 (M), 60.5 (F)

60.2 (1970); 56.1 (M), 64.6 (F)

62.9 (1980); 58.8 (M), 67.2 (F)

68.3 (1990); 64.2 (M), 72.6 (F)

68.6 (2000); 64.9 (M), 72.4 (F)

69.3 (2010); 65.3 (M), 73.5 (F)

71.5 (2020); 67.5 (M), 75.6 (F)

Population of principal cities

	BISHKEK (Frunze)	Osh	Karakol (Przhevalsk)
1876	182
1882	2,135
1902	9,656		8,500
1926	36,610		13,366
1939	92,783
1960	360,000	65,000
1970	430,618	140,000	46,394
1980	580,000	173,000	52,000
1990	616,000	238,200	64,000
2000	750,327	208,520	64,322
2010	854,000		67,500
2015	937,400	255,400

Wealth; Gross Domestic Product (nominal values), Economic output declined sharply after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

	GDP, US$ million	Total GDP, % of USA	GDP per capita, US$	GDP per capita % of USA
1990	2,674	0.05	608	2.54
1995	1,490	0.02	364	1.21
2000	1,300	0.01	278	0.76
2005	2,500	0.02	480	1.08
2010	4,444	0.03	880	1.82
2015	6,678	0.04	1,120	1.99
2016	6,550	0.04	1,077	1.87

GDP by primary sector

	Agriculture % GDP	Agriculture % employed	Industry % GDP	Industry % employed	Services % GDP	Services % employed
1991	36.8	38.1	34.3	16.3	32.0	60.0
2001	38.0	55.0	25.3	15.0	39.0	30.0
2010	24.6	48.0	25.0	12.5	50.4	39.5
2016	14.9		29.2		55.9

Communications

Language, %. Official; Kirghiz and Russian

After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Kirghiz was the sole official language; Russian was official only in provinces where Russians were in a majority.� However in 2000 the Kirghiz Parliament voted to make Russian the co-official language in the whole country, to halt the emigration of skilled Russians.

	German	Kirghiz	Russian	Ukrainian	Uzbek
1990	2.0	53.0	21.0	3.0	13.0
2000		64.7	12.5		13.6
2009		71.4	9.0		14.4

Literacy

97.0% (2000)

98.7% (2010); 99.3% (M), 98.1% (F)

99.5% (2015); 99.6% (M), 99.4% (F)

Physical communications � roads

	Roads (km)	Surfaced (km)	Motor vehicles	Cars	Commercial Vehicles	Railways (km)
1959		4,500				370
1978	22,300	15,200				370
1990	28,400					370
1996		16,000	146,000			370
2003		17,180	188,900			417
2008	34,000	33,000	230,000			470
2010			430,300
2013			958,187	777,847	114.,853
2014						470

Electronic communications, Radio broadcasting began in 1931. TV broadcasting begin in 1958

	Telephones (landlines)	Mobile Telephones	Radios	Televisions	PCs	Internet Users
1975	77,000
1980	146,250
1990	314,000		460,000	70,000
1995			510,000	150,000
1998		1,350	542,000
2000	376,000	9,000		230,000	25,600
2002					64,500	152,000
2005		541,700			100,000	280,000
2010	502,000	5,275,000
2012	489,000
2016	382,149	7,613,500				1,976,000
2017						2,100,000

Tourism: Visitors to Kyrgyzstan,

36,000 (1995)

59,000 (2000)

319,000 (2005)

855,000 (2010)

3,051,000 (2015)