Turkmen population thought to have fallen dramatically

RUSSIA / FSU POLITICS - In Brief 30 Jul 2023 by Alex Teddy

---

On July 14 the government published census data claiming that there are 7 million people in the Central Asian country. This is up from 6.7 million in 2026. There was a census in 2012 but the data remains a secret possibly because it was so embarrassing. Between 2008 and 2018 about 2 million people emigrated. They went to Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, China and the Middle East. Experts say there is a demographic death spiral in Turkmenistan. Millions of people have left the country due to abject poverty, mass unemployment and the rampant extortion of bribes by officials. Turkmenistan is said to be the most oppressive country in the world after North Korea. However, Turkmens are usually allowed to leave. Remittances from Turkmens abroad are vital for the economy. Turkmenistan is rich in oil and gas but a minute elite takes almost all the money. Turkmen government sources privately say that the real figure is about 2.8 million. It is alleged that officials were pressurized to simply falsify data. Sometimes they count people who have been abroad for years, and even the president knows the real situation. In 2022 around 80,000 Turkmen finished high school. In 2009 the figure was 115,000, which is indicative of an alarmingly abrupt drop in the population. The downward trend is likely to accelerate. People in their 20s are the most likely to emigrate, and the next generation of Turkmen are mostly being born abroad. In 2022 the government started conscripting boys still in high school because there was no other way to meet the recruitment target for the army. In 2022 the government prevented some people from going abroad, in a few cases, even removing people from planes before t...