Until the end of 2018, Uzbek citizens wishing to travel abroad required permission issued by their own government — not a visa for the destination but permission to depart. It was a Soviet inheritance, and Uzbekistan was one of very few countries still maintaining it into the 2010s. It was abolished on 1 January 2019.

Because passport rankings measure only the right to enter, and that means nothing unless you are permitted to leave. When assessing a citizenship, ask further whether the issuing country restricts its citizens' departure, and whether restrictions apply by occupation, gender or military service obligation. None of these appear in any ranking.

No. Those naturalising must renounce their prior nationality. This is common to the Central Asian bloc alongside Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, with varying enforcement. If the objective is to add a nationality while retaining an existing one, the whole bloc is off the list.

Currency liberalisation in 2017 — previously the official rate was detached from the market rate, making conversion extremely difficult and forming the largest barrier to foreign investment. Abolition of exit visas in 2019. Expanded visa-free entry and e-visas. Cotton sector reform after years of documented forced labour. For completeness, human rights organisations continue to document significant restrictions on expression and assembly — economic and political reform have not moved at the same pace.

Entirely surrounded by other landlocked countries, so goods must cross at least two national borders to reach the sea. Only two countries qualify: Uzbekistan and Liechtenstein. It is a structural determinant of logistics costs and of foreign policy.

Essentially not. Kazakhstan restored the North Aral behind the Kokaral dam, but the southern Aral on the Uzbek side is beyond recovery. The exposed bed left a salt desert contaminated with agricultural chemicals, and dust storms from it affect health across the region.

Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva are all UNESCO sites, sat on the Silk Road, and were for centuries among Eurasia's wealthiest cities. The region produced or nurtured al-Khwarizmi — from whose name comes 'algorithm' and from whose work comes 'algebra' — along with Ibn Sina, al-Biruni and Ulugh Beg. This was a centre of history, not a periphery.

A highly concentrated remittance risk: millions of Uzbeks work abroad, chiefly in Russia, and remittances form a very large share of household income, making the economy directly sensitive to Russian economic conditions and migration policy. The young population is also both an asset and a pressure, since a great many jobs must be created each year.