Demographics of Kazakhstan

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As of 2003, there is a discrepancy between reputable sources as to the population of Kazakhstan. United States government sources including the CIA World Fact Book and the US Census Bureau International Data Base list the current population as 16,763,795, while United Nations sources such as the World Bank give a 2002 estimate of 14,794,830. This rather large discrepancy is presumably due to difficulties in measurement caused by the large migratory population of Kazakhstan, emigration, and the low population density - only about 5.5 persons per km² in an area the size of Western Europe.

According to the 1999 census there are two dominant ethnical groups in Kazakhstan, they are ethnic Kazakhs (53.4%) and ethnic Russians (30%) with an amazingly rich 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, many minorities 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, Chinese, 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 (census data)^[1]

Nationality	1959 %	1970 %	1979 %	1989 %	1999 %
Kazakh	30.0	32.6	36.0	40.1	53.4
Russian	42.7	42.4	40.8	37.4	29.9
Ukrainian	8.2	7.2	6.1	5.4	3.7
Belorussian	1.2	1.5	1.2	1.1	0.8
German	7.1	6.6	6.1	5.8	2.4
Tatar	2.1	2.2	2.1	2.0	1.7
Uzbek	1.5	1.7	1.8	2.0	2.5
Uighur	0.6	0.9	1.0	1.1	1.4
Korean	0.8	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.7

Table: Ethnic Composition of Kazakhstan (Detailed Census Data)[2]

Ethnic groups	1999	1989	As % of 1989	% Of Pop
Total population	14,953,126	16,464,464	90.82	100.00
Kazakh	7,985,039	6,534,616	122.19	53.40
Russians	4,479,618	6,227,549	71.93	29.95
Ukrainians	547,052	896,240	61.03	3.65
Uzbeks	370,663	332,017	111.63	2.47
Germans	353,441	957,518	36.91	2.36
Tatars	248,952	327,982	75.90	1.66
Uighurs	210,339	185,301	113.51	1.40
Belarusians	111,926	182,601	61.29	0.74
Koreans	99,657	103,315	96.45	0.66
Azerbaijanis	78,295	90,083	86.91	0.52
Poles	47,297	59,956	78.88	0.31
Dungans	36,945	30,165	122.47	0.24
Kurds	32,764	25,425	128.86	0.21
Chechens	31,799	49,507	64.23	0.21
Tajiks	25,657	25,514	100.56	0.17
Bashkirs	23,224	41,847	55.49	0.15
Moldovans	19,458	33,098	58.78	0.13
Ingush	16,893	19,914	84.82	0.11
Mordva	16,147	30,036	53.75	0.10
Armenians	14,758	19,119	77.19	0.09
Greek	12,703	46,746	27.17	0.08
Kyrgyz	10,896	14,112	77.21	0.07
Bulgarians	6,915	10,426	66.32	0.04
Lezgins	4,616	13,905	33.19	0.03
Turkmen	1,729	3,846	44.95	0.01
Other	166,342	203,626	81.68	1.11
No	1	119	0.84	0.00

Total Slavic/European population was 39.0% in 1999. (It was 60.3% in 1959, 57.3% in 1970,54.5% in 1979 and 49.8% in 1989). [3]

Age structure:

• 0-14 years: 27% (male 2,332,284; female 2,260,730)
• 15-64 years: 65% (male 5,320,938; female 5,638,710)
• 65 years and over: 8% (male 398,225; female 782,340) (2000 est.)

Population growth rate:

• 0.26% (2004 est.)

Birth rate:

• 15.52 births/1,000 population (2004 est.)

Death rate:

• 9.59 deaths/1,000 population (2004 est.)

Net migration rate:

• -3.35 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2004 est.)

Sex ratio:

• at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
• under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
• 15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
• 65 years and over: 0.54 male(s)/female
• total population: 0.94 male(s)/female (2004 est.)

Infant mortality rate:

• total: 30.54 deaths/1,000 live births
• male: 35.24 deaths/1,000 live births
• female: 25.57 deaths/1,000 live births (2004 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:

• total population: 66.07 years
• male: 60.72 years
• female: 71.73 years (2004 est.)

Total fertility rate:

• 1.9 children born/woman (2004 est.)

According to the PHDS survey in 2000, the TFR for Russians was 1.38, that for Russian speaking Kazakhs was 1.9 and that for Kazakh speaking Kazakhs was 2.9. TFR according to regions: Almaty Gorsovet-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).1

Nationality:

• noun: Kazakhstani(s)
• adjective: Kazakhstani

Ethnic groups: (1999 census)

• Kazakhs (Qazaq) (53.4%)
• Russians (30%)
• Ukrainians (3.7%)
• Germans (2.4%)
• Uzbeks (2.5%)
• Tatars (1.7%)
• Uyghurs (1.4%)
• other (4.9%)

Religions:

• Muslim (47%)
• Russian Orthodox (44%)
• Protestant (2%)
• other (7%)

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: 98.4%
• male: 99.1%
• female: 97.7%

[edit] References

[edit] External links

For current data, use these sites.

• World Bank Database
• CIA World Fact Book page on Kazakhstan
• US Census Bureau International Data Base
• countrystudies.us
• WESP population statistics