Most Tajiks are Sunni Muslims. Groups of Shiite Muslims live in remote mountain areas. Small communities of a sect called the Ismaili Khoja Muslims live in the Pamirs, a mountain range in southeastern Tajikistan. The most heavily settled regions of Tajikistan are valleys in the southwest. Most people live in rural villages that are made up of sun-dried earthen houses surrounded by earthen walls.
City dwellers live in single-story houses and multistory apartment buildings.
Most families in Tajikistan are large. Many members of an extended family may live together in one household, including parents, married children and their offspring, and other relatives. Because of marriage patterns, it is common for all people in a village to be related. Some Tajiks follow a Muslim custom that permits a man to have as many as four wives. Tajiks wear both Western-style and traditional clothing.