Karimov was born in Samarkand to Uzbek parents who were civil servants. According to official data his father is Abdug'ani Karimov, an Uzbek, and his mother is Sanobar Karimova, a Tajik. But according to unofficial data his biological father was Bukharan Jewish. He was sent to an orphanage in 1941, brought back in 1942, and then returned to the orphanage in 1945. In 1955, he graduated from high school. In 1960, he graduated from the Central Asian Polytechnic Institute (now Tashkent State Technical University) with a degree in mechanical engineering. He began work as an engineer, eventually joining the Ministry of Water Resources of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1967, he earned a master's degree in economics from Tashkent State University of Economics.