Tajikistan¹ (population 6.53 million people)² is a primarily mountainous country in Central Asia. One of the former Soviet republics, it declared its independence in September 1991 after the break-up of the USSR. Its 143,100 sq. km are primarily mountainous, with the high Pamir mountain range in the south and lowland plains to the west. A land-locked country, it has Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, China to the east, and Afghanistan to the south.³ The official state language is Tajik, although Russian is widely used in government and business.⁴

According to the United Nations human development index (HDI), Tajikistan is ranked 122/177 countries worldwide (value 0.652).⁵ This places Tajikistan in the group of countries with medium human development.