Tkvarcheli is located in the eastern part of Abkhazia, which after the war became de facto independent, but is still generally recognised as de jure part of Georgia. According to the last pre-war census (1989), it had a population of 21,744, with ethnic Abkhaz (42.3%), Russian (24.5%) and Georgian (23.4%) communities but a bulk of the Georgian population left the town shortly after the Georgian-Abkhazian fighting erupted in August 1992.