In the 2021 Jean and Denis Sinor Faculty Fellowship Lecture I examine national demographic change and population development across Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan across the past thirty years. Employing national data and a variety of health and population surveys, I deconstruct national population trends, tracing how regional and ethnic differentials in fertility, mortality, morbidity, and migration alter population size, distribution, and structure for majority and minority ethnolinguistic groups within these countries. I highlight the importance of national and subnational population change on issues of national identity, economic development, inequality, and political stability. Drawing upon the work of Denis Sinor, my discussion emphasizes broader boundaries of what constitutes Central Asia, focusing upon the importance of the region’s linguistic and cultural diversity for understanding demographic challenges to socio-political stability.
