The number of newspapers in Uzbekistan is declining significantly year after year, the Statistics Agency said in a report.
As of January 1, 2026, there are 219 active newspapers across the country, with a combined annual circulation of 30.2 million copies.
The contraction of the print press industry has accelerated over the past decade. For context, the country had a total of 649 active newspapers in 2010. Five years later, that number fell to 620. The decline became far steeper in the subsequent period, with the number of newspapers plummeting to 366. Overall, the total count of print media outlets has shrunk nearly threefold over the last 10 years.
By comparison, as of January 1, 2022, Uzbekistan still had 592 active newspapers. At that time, the Statistics Agency noted that the capital city of Tashkent boasted the highest concentration of print media with 134 newspapers. It was followed by the Fergana region with 82, Samarkand with 66, and Namangan with 53. The lowest number of operational newspapers was recorded in the Republic of Karakalpakstan, which had just 12.
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