LifePath

Life in Turkmenistan

Europe & Central Asia · upper-middle-income · capital Ashgabat

World Bank country code TKM · ISO TM · Data sources

Live a life in Turkmenistan

Start from this country's own statistics — its mortality curve, its income level, its school system — and play the years out: what happens if you leave school at fifteen, or take the job that is offered, or move to the capital.

Start a life in Turkmenistan

The statistics behind the simulation

Each figure shows the year it was observed. A missing row means the World Bank does not report that indicator for Turkmenistan — not that the value is zero.

IndicatorValueYear
Life expectancy at birth
The average number of years a newborn would live if the year's mortality rates held for their whole life.
70.2 years2024
Infant mortality
Babies who die before their first birthday, per 1,000 live births.
30.4 per 1,0002024
Under-5 mortality
Children who die before their fifth birthday, per 1,000 live births.
39.0 per 1,0002024
Fertility rate
The average number of children a woman is expected to have over her lifetime.
2.662024
GDP per capita (PPP)
Purchasing-power-adjusted output per person — the best single measure of how much a person in this country can buy.
$21,0262024
Adult literacy rate
The share of people aged 15 and over who can read and write a short simple statement about their everyday life.
99.9%2022
Government education spending
Public spending on education as a share of total output.
4.3%2024
Government health spending
Public spending on health as a share of total output.
5.5%2023
Urban population
The share of people living in urban areas.
47.1%2024
Youth unemployment
The share of the labour force aged 15–24 that is without work and looking for it.
4.0%2024
Population
Total population.
7,494,4982024
Birth rate
Crude birth rate: births per 1,000 population per year.
20.92024
Secondary school enrolment
Total enrolment in secondary school, regardless of age, as a percentage of the official age group.
94.6%2024
Female labour force participation
The share of women aged 15 and over in work or actively looking for work.
38.4%2024
Maternal mortality
Deaths during pregnancy and childbirth per 100,000 live births.
5 per 100,0002023

What these numbers mean

A newborn in Turkmenistan can expect to live 70.2 years, below the dataset median of 74.7 years. Infant mortality runs at 30.4 deaths per 1,000 live births (2024), so roughly 30 in every thousand babies do not reach their first birthday. Output per person, adjusted for purchasing power, is $21,026 (2024) — which places the country in the middle of this dataset on purchasing power, and it is what sets the scale of every income the simulation can offer. The fertility rate is 2.66 births per woman (2024) — close to replacement level. Adult literacy stands at 99.9% (2022), so schooling in the simulation starts close to universal here. Public spending on education is 4.3% of output (2024), which is the share of national resources the simulation's schooling decisions are competing for. 47.1% of people live in urban areas (2024), so most lives here begin in a village or a small town, and moving is one of the larger decisions available.

In the simulation, income is expressed as a share of what an average worker in Turkmenistan earns, so the same household choice buys very different amounts in different countries. Median output per person across this dataset is $21,026.

Other countries in Europe & Central Asia

Where Turkmenistan sits within Europe & Central Asia

Of the 58 countries in Europe & Central Asia that report life expectancy, Turkmenistan sits below the regional median, at 70.2 years against a regional median of 79.9. 57 countries report a higher figure and 0 report a lower one.

IndicatorTurkmenistanEurope & Central Asia medianEurope & Central Asia range
Life expectancy70.279.970.2 – 86.5
Infant mortality30.43.41.2 – 30.4
GDP per capita (PPP)$21,026$50,396$5,414 – $156,079
Adult literacy99.9%99.7%97.3% – 100.0%
Fertility rate2.71.41.0 – 3.5
Urban population47.1%69.1%14.7% – 100.0%
Education spending4.3%4.6%1.7% – 7.3%

Ranges cover every country in the region that reports the indicator, in the year each country last reported it. Medians are unweighted, so a large country and a small one count the same.

Where Turkmenistan shows up in the topics

These pages put Turkmenistan's figures next to the other 216 countries, for the indicators that shape the decisions in the simulation.

About these figures

The statistics above are national averages from the World Bank Open Data, retrieved 2026-11-01 and released under World Bank data is released under CC BY 4.0. National averages do not describe any individual life, and this page does not rank Turkmenistan against other countries. Life expectancy reflects a country's mortality conditions as a whole, which include healthcare access, income distribution, nutrition, sanitation and public safety — the simulation uses it as a risk curve, not as a measure of the people who live there.

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