The region is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the southwest, European Russia to the northwest, China and Mongolia to the east,[5] Afghanistan and Iran to the south, and Siberia to the north.

In the pre-Islamic and early Islamic eras (c. 1000 and earlier) Central Asia was inhabited predominantly by Iranian peoples,[6][7] populated by Eastern Iranian-speaking Bactrians, Sogdians, Chorasmians, and the semi-nomadic Scythians and Dahae.

[22] The Russian geographer Nikolaĭ Khanykov questioned the latitudinal definition of Central Asia and preferred a physical one of all countries located in the region landlocked from water, including Afghanistan, Khorasan (Northeast Iran), Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uyghuristan (Xinjiang), Mongolia, and Uzbekistan.

[26] The most limited definition was the official one of the Soviet Union, which defined Middle Asia as consisting solely of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, omitting Kazakhstan.

In 1978, UNESCO defined the region as "Afghanistan, north-eastern Iran, Pakistan, northern India, western China, Mongolia and the Soviet Central Asian Republics".

[28][29][30] Central Asia is a region of varied geography, including high passes and mountains (Tian Shan), vast deserts (Kyzyl Kum, Taklamakan), and especially treeless, grassy steppes.

The Gobi Desert extends from the foot of the Pamirs, 77° E, to the Great Khingan (Da Hinggan) Mountains, 116°–118° E. Central Asia has the following geographic extremes: A majority of the people earn a living by herding livestock.

The main irrigated areas are along the eastern mountains, along the Oxus and Jaxartes Rivers and along the north flank of the Kopet Dagh near the Persian border.

Average monthly precipitation is very low from July to September, rises in autumn (October and November) and is highest in March or April, followed by swift drying in May and June.

As of 2022, there has been a scarcity of research on climate impacts in Central Asia, even though it experiences faster warming than the global average and is generally considered to be one of the more climate-vulnerable regions in the world.

[39] Once populated by Iranian tribes and other Indo-European speaking people, Central Asia experienced numerous invasions emanating out of Southern Siberia and Mongolia that would drastically affect the region.

The Soviet areas of Central Asia saw much industrialisation and construction of infrastructure, but also the suppression of local cultures, hundreds of thousands of deaths from failed collectivisation programmes, and a lasting legacy of ethnic tensions and environmental problems.

None of the new republics could be considered functional democracies in the early days of independence, although in recent years Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia have made further progress towards more open societies, unlike Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, which have maintained many Soviet-style repressive tactics.

Mixed Martial Arts is one of more common sports in Central Asia, Kyrgyz athlete Valentina Shevchenko holding the UFC Flyweight Champion title.

Notable Kazakh competitors include cyclists Alexander Vinokourov and Andrey Kashechkin, boxer Vassiliy Jirov and Gennady Golovkin, runner Olga Shishigina, decathlete Dmitriy Karpov, gymnast Aliya Yussupova, judoka Askhat Zhitkeyev and Maxim Rakov, skier Vladimir Smirnov, weightlifter Ilya Ilyin, and figure skaters Denis Ten and Elizabet Tursynbaeva.

Only 4% of permanently closed businesses anticipate to return in the future, with huge differences across sectors, ranging from 3% in lodging and food services to 27% in retail commerce.

[69][71] In 2022, experts assessed that global climate change is likely to pose multiple economic risks to Central Asia and may possibly result in many billions of losses unless proper adaptation measures are developed to counter growing temperatures across the region.

[34][72] Bolstered by strong economic growth in all but Kyrgyzstan, national development strategies are fostering new high-tech industries, pooling resources and orienting the economy towards export markets.

Although two-thirds of papers from the region have a foreign co-author, the main partners tend to come from beyond Central Asia, namely the Russian Federation, USA, German, United Kingdom and Japan.

The landlocked Central Asian republics are conscious of the need to co-operate in order to maintain and develop their transport networks and energy, communication and irrigation systems.

At the time, Vladimir Debabov, scientific director of the Genetika State Research Institute for Genetics and the Selection of Industrial Micro-organisms in the Russian Federation, stressed the paramount importance of developing bio-industry.

The focus of this research projects is on three societal challenges considered as being of mutual interest to both the European Union and Central Asia, namely: climate change, energy and health.

It involves a consortium of partner institutions from Austria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Portugal, Tajikistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan.

Varieties of Persian are also spoken as a major language in the region, locally known as Dari (in Afghanistan), Tajik (in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), and Bukhori (by the Bukharan Jews of Central Asia).

In the post–Cold War era, Central Asia is an ethnic cauldron, prone to instability and conflicts, without a sense of national identity, but rather a mess of historical cultural influences, tribal and clan loyalties, and religious fervor.

[94] The region, along with Russia, is also part of "the great pivot" as per the Heartland Theory of Halford Mackinder, which says that the power which controls Central Asia—richly endowed with natural resources—shall ultimately be the "empire of the world".

For example, the region is endowed with various mineral resources such as chromium, cobalt, zinc, copper, silver, lithium, lead, molybdenum and many others making it a potential major global supplier of critical materials for clean energy technologies.

Pakistan's status has been upgraded by the U.S. government to Major non-NATO ally because of its central role in serving as a staging point for the invasion of Afghanistan, providing intelligence on Al-Qaeda operations in the region, and leading the hunt on Osama bin Laden.

Afghanistan, which had served as a haven and source of support for Al-Qaeda under the protection of Mullah Omar and the Taliban, was the target of a U.S. invasion in 2001 and ongoing reconstruction and drug-eradication efforts.

Western governments have accused Russia, China and the former Soviet republics of justifying the suppression of separatist movements, and the associated ethnics and religion with the War on Terror.