Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan: strong, sustained growth, 1987–2025

Central Asia's most populous country pursued a slower, more state-controlled post-Soviet transition than Kazakhstan, before a wave of liberalizing reforms after 2016 opened the economy to greater trade and investment. Between 1987 and 2025, Uzbekistan's GDP per capita grew from $450 to $3,968 (current US$), a compound annual growth rate of 5.9% — strong, sustained growth. Annual GDP growth averaged 4.8% with a year-to-year standard deviation of 4.2 points, reflecting considerable volatility and periodic crises. Structurally, agriculture's share of the economy moved from 25.5% to 16.6% of GDP (a classic decline as the economy industrialized/modernized), while services rose from 31.5% to 46.5% of GDP, underscoring a shift toward a services-driven economy. On human development, life expectancy rose from 63.0 to 72.5 years, while tertiary school enrollment moved from 15.2% to 59.8%, while the urban population share grew from 41.1% to 51.0%.

What this growth cost: Growth was not without cost: per-capita CO2 emissions fell from 5.61 to 4.09 tonnes CO2e per person; income inequality (Gini index) narrowed from 44.1 to 32.7; the poverty headcount ratio fell from 79.8% to 2.3%.