The transformation of the ethno-confessional structure of the population occurs under the influence of three factors: natural growth, determined by the ratio of birth rate and mortality, migration flows, and assimilation processes. Since assimilation usually takes place over a long historical period, and its quantitative measurement is difficult to determine, the main factors of transformation of the ethno-confessional structure of the independent states of Central Asia (CA)are:1 During the 1990s and the middle of the first decade of the 2000s, natural and migration movements of the population can be considered. Key words: Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyzstan), Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, migration, demography. NATURAL POPULATION MOVEMENT: NEW TRENDS In the conditions of a deep economic crisis and unstable socio-political situation that accompanied the collapse of the USSR, the rate of natural population growth in the former Soviet republics noticeably decreased. In Central Asia and Kazakhstan, demographic growth slowed down as early as the 1970s. If during the period of the demographic "explosion", which peaked in 1959-1970, the population growth reached 42.6%, in 1970-1979 - 22.6, in 1979-1989 - 22.9, then in 1991-2000. - only 9.3%, having more than doubled in comparison with the previous decade [Population of the USSR, 1989, p. 8-9; On the demographic situation in the Commonwealth countries, 2001, p.13]. By 2000, the population of the region reached 55.2 million, by 2008-60.6 million people, and its share among the population of the CIS in 1991-2005 increased from 18 to 21.6% [World Population..., 2008, p. 9; Permanent population of the CIS countries... in 2008]. At the same time, the demographic development trends of the Central Asian states in the post-Soviet period were multidirectional. During 1990-1999, the average annual population growth rate of Kyrgyzstan was 0.8%, Tajikistan-1.8%, and Uzbekistan - 2%. In Kazakhstan, on the contrary, ... Читать далее