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The Demographics of Kazakhstan enumerate the demographic features of the population of Kazakhstan, including population growth, population density, ethnicity, education level, health, economic status, religious affiliations, and other aspects of the population.

Population of Kazakhstan (in millions) from 1950-2008.

Demographic trends

Official estimates put the population of Kazakhstan at 15.7 million as of 1 July 2008, of which 47% is rural and 53% urban population.^[1] The 2008 population estimate is 4.8% higher than the population reported in the last census from January 1999 (slightly less than 15 million). If these estimates are confirmed by the forthcoming 2009 population census, this would mean that the decline in population that began after 1989 has been arrested and possibly reversed. The population of Kazakhstan increased steadily from 6.1 million in the 1939 census to 16.5 million in the 1989 census. Official estimates indicate that the population continued to increase after 1989, peaking out at 17 million in 1993 and then declining to 15 million in the 1999 census. The downward trend continued through 2002, when the estimated population bottomed out at 14.9 million, and then resumed its growth.^[2] Kazakhstan underwent significant urbanization during the first 50 years of the Soviet era, as the share of rural population declined from more than 90% in the 1920s to less than 50% since the 1970s.^[3]

Population of Kazakhstan 1939-2009

Data sources: Population 1939-1999 from demoscope.ru,^[2] 2002-2008 from Kazakhstan Statistical Agency web site.^[1] Rural/urban shares 1939-1993 from statistical yearbooks, print editions,^[3] 2002-2008 from Kazakhstan Statistical Agency web site.^[1] 2009 census ^[4]

Discrepancies in Western sources

As of 2003, there were discrepancies between Westerm sources regarding the population of Kazakhstan. United States government sources, including the CIA World Fact Book and the US Census Bureau International Data Base, listed the population as 15,340,533,^[5] while the World Bank gave a 2002 estimate of 14,794,830. This discrepancy was presumably due to difficulties in measurement caused by the large migratory population in Kazakhstan, emigration, and low population density - only about 5.5 persons per km² in an area the size of Western Europe.

Ethnic groups

According to the 1999 census there are two dominant ethnical groups in Kazakhstan, they are ethnic Kazakhs (53.4%) and ethnic Russians (30%) with a wide array of other groups represented, including Ukrainians, Uzbeks, Germans, Chechens, Koreans, and Uyghurs - that is, virtually any group that has ever come under the Russian sphere of influence. This diverse demography is due to the country's central location and its historical use by Russia as a place to send colonists, dissidents, and minority groups from its other frontiers - one can almost not understand Kazakhstan without understanding population transfer in the Soviet Union. From the 1930s until the 1950s, both Russian opposition (and such Russians "accused" of being part of the opposition) and certain minorities (esp. Volga Germans, Poles, Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars, Kalmyks) had been interned in labor camps often merely due to their heritage or beliefs, mostly on collective orders by Stalin. This makes Kazakhstan one of the few places on Earth where normally-disparate Germanic, Indo-Iranian, Koreans, Chechen, and Turkic groups live together in a rural setting and not as a result of modern immigration. Most of the population speaks Russian; only half of ethnic Kazakhs speak Kazakh fluently, although it is enjoying a renaissance. Both Kazakh and Russian languages have official status.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the German population of Kazakhstan proceeded to emigrate en masse during the 1990s [1], as Germany is willing to repatriate them. Also much of the smaller Greek minority took the chance to repatriate to Greece, so did many Russians move to Russia. Some groups have fewer good options for emigration but because of the economic situation are also leaving at rates comparable to the rest of the former East bloc.

Table: Ethnic Composition of Kazakhstan^[6][7][8]

* For 1897 and 1911 "Russians" includes Ukrainians and Belarusians.

Kazakh boy with a camel in Baikonur

Table: Ethnic Composition of Kazakhstan (Detailed Census Data)^[9]

Total Slavic/European population 39.0% in 1999 (compared with 60.3% in 1959, 57.3% in 1970,54.5% in 1979, and 49.8% in 1989).^[6]

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.^[5]

Age structure

Kazakhstan Population pyramid, 2005

• 0-14 years: 22.8% (male 1,734,622/female 1,659,723)
• 15-64 years: 70.2% (male 5,279,292/female 5,534,607)
• 65 years and over: 7.9% (male 426,494/female 797,655) (2009 est.)

Population growth rate

• 0.392% (2009 est.)

Birth rate

• 16.6 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)

Death rate

• 9.39 deaths/1,000 population (2009 est.)

Net migration rate

• -3.3 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.)

Sex ratio

• at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
• under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
• 15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
• 65 years and over: 0.54 male(s)/female
• total population: 0.93 male(s)/female (2009 est.)

Infant mortality rate

• total: 23.75 deaths/1,000 live births
• male: 30.15 deaths/1,000 live births
• female: 21.06 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)

Life expectancy at birth

• total population: 67.87 years
• male: 62.58 years
• female: 73.47 years (2009 est.)

Total fertility rate

• 1.88 children born/woman (2009 est.)

According to the Kazakhstan Demographic and Health Survey in 1999, the TFR for Kazakhs was 2.5 and that for Russians was 1.38. TFR in 1989 for Kazakhs & Russians were 3.58 and 2.24 respectively. TFR according to regions: Almaty City-1.00, South - 2.86, West-2.26, Karaganda-1.59, North-1.72, East- 1.42. percentage of people currently pregnant was 2.89% (2.95% of Kazakhs, 2.49% of Russians and 3.42% of Others).^[10]

Nationality

• noun: Kazakhstani(s)
• adjective: Kazakhstani

Religions

• Islam (62%) ^[11]
• Russian Orthodox (35%)
• Other religions (3%)

Languages (2001 est)

• Kazakh (Qazaq, state language) (64.4%)
• Russian (official, used in everyday business) (95%)

Literacy (1999 est)

• definition: age 15 and over can read and write
• total population: 99.5%
• male: 99.8%
• female: 99.3%

References

External links

For current data, use these sites.

• Population and social policy, Statistical Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan (kaz
• World Bank Database
• CIA World Fact Book page on Kazakhstan
• US Census Bureau International Data Base
• countrystudies.us
• WESP population statistics
• Russians left behind in Central Asia

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