Uzbekistan counts 62.1 per cent computer use among people aged 10 and over

The share of Uzbekistan's population aged 10 and over who used a computer reached 62.1 per cent in 2025, up from 49.1 per cent in 2017, a release from the National Statistics Committee dated 9 September showed.

The committee's figures for the structure of information and communication technology (ICT) output, published in August, show telecommunications services generating 28.9 per cent of the sector's gross value added, behind computer programming and consultancy at 53.6 per cent.

The computer-use release is based on the committee's sample household surveys but does not report internet or smartphone use, does not break the figure down by region, age, sex or urban and rural residence, and gives no sample size. Its series shows the share barely moving between 2017 and 2019, at 49.1, 49.7 and 49.8 per cent, then rising to 52.5 per cent in 2020 and 58.2 per cent in 2021, before slower gains of 58.8, 59.2 and 60.4 per cent from 2022 to 2024.

Where ICT value is made

In January to June 2026, ICT services accounted for 2.9 per cent of gross domestic product, against 2.8 per cent in the first half of 2025 and 2.4 per cent in the first half of 2024, the committee said in a release dated 25 August. Gross value added in ICT services was UZS 30.3 trillion. Within it, computer programming, consultancy and related activities accounted for 53.6 per cent, telecommunications services 28.9 per cent, data processing, hosting and web portals 10.5 per cent, software 4.4 per cent and repair of computers and communication equipment 2.6 per cent.

On those shares, telecommunications services generated about UZS 8.8 trillion of value added in the half year and data processing and hosting about UZS 3.2 trillion, on Link Budget's arithmetic. The release does not give a growth rate for telecoms on its own, and does not say how the value added of mobile operators, fixed operators and internet providers is divided.

A release dated 12 October put the committee's broader turnover measure, communication and information services, at UZS 71.4 trillion in January to August, a figure that counts sales rather than value added and so is not comparable with the GDP share.

Hardware made at home

Large enterprises produced computers, electronic and optical products worth UZS 4 trillion in January to July 2026, 9.1 per cent more than a year earlier, a release dated 23 September showed. Tashkent city accounted for UZS 1.7 trillion and Tashkent region for UZS 1.4 trillion, together about 78 per cent of the total, on Link Budget's arithmetic. Kashkadarya produced UZS 315.4 billion, Namangan UZS 158 billion, Fergana UZS 155.9 billion and Navoi UZS 143.2 billion, Jizzakh UZS 60.5 billion and Syrdarya UZS 20.2 billion; five regions each produced less than UZS 15 billion. The smallest totals were in Khorezm, at UZS 2 billion, and Surkhandarya, at UZS 2.1 billion, the committee's regional table shows.

The release does not list products or manufacturers, so it does not show whether network equipment, handsets or consumer electronics drive the total, and it covers only large enterprises.

What the figures leave out

None of the three releases reports broadband subscriptions, mobile data traffic, network coverage or investment by operators, the measures that would show how the networks themselves are growing. Officials gave coverage figures elsewhere: at the International Telecommunication Union's regional forum in Dushanbe on 29 and 30 September, Deputy Minister of Digital Technologies Jamol Makhsudov said more than 99.5 per cent of settlements are covered by mobile internet and 98 per cent have access to fibre-optic lines, according to the ITU's draft outcome report.

The committee's figures for ICT's share of GDP in January to September are the next document to read.