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People
Culture and Demography
Kazakhstan is a multiethnic country with over 100 ethnic groups. The country's largest ethnic groups are Kazakhs (estimates range from 42 percent to over 50 percent) and Russians (estimates range from 30 percent to 37 percent). Russians are concentrated in the north and in large urban areas, whereas Kazakhs are the predominant ethnic group in rural areas. Other ethnic groups in Kazakhstan include Ukrainians, Germans, Uzbeks, Uygurs, Tatars, Tajiks, Belorussians, Bashkirs, Chechens, Dungans, Ingushs, Jews, Kurds, Kyrgyzs, Dargyns, Meskhetian Turks and others.
Interestingly, Kazakhstan is the only former Soviet republic in which the ethnic group for which the republic was named constituted less than 50 percent of the population. Large numbers of Russians and Ukrainians also migrated to Kazakhstan in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, after Central Asia became part of the Russian Empire. During World War II, the population base was further expanded when Germans, Tatars, and others were deported to Kazakhstan from other parts of the former Soviet Union. Another extensive wave of Russian and Slavic migration to Kazakhstan occurred in 1954 when the former Soviets decided to cultivate the land in northern Kazakhstan. Although Russians outnumbered Kazakhs in the republic in the late 1950s, by the 1980s, this demographic trend reversed. By the time that Kazakhstan became an independent republic in 1991, many Germans and Russians began to leave, large numbers of Kazakhs settled in the republic from the neighboring Central Asian states and from Mongolia.
Language in Kazakhstan is a contentious and politicized issue. The 1995 constitution states that Kazakh and Russian are officially recognized state languages. Despite pressure to speak Kazakh for national interests, a majority of Kazakhs speak Russian in everyday life, business and academia, and some linguistic experts suggest that as many as 40 percent of the country's population is not fluent in Kazakh. Kazakh is part of the Nogai-Kipchak subgroup of northeastern Turkic languages, which belong to the Uralic-Altaic language family. It is heavily influenced by both Tatar and Mongol, and it is very similar in its linguistic elements to the Kyrgyz language of neighboring Kyrgyzstan. Kazakh was first written only in the 1860s, using Arabic script. In 1929, Latin script was introduced. In 1940, Stalin decided to unify the written materials of the Central Asian republics with those of the Slavic rulers by introducing a modified form of Cyrillic. In 1992, the idea of a Latin-based alphabet was advanced, but was never fully implemented due to the likely expenses incurred in the proposed implementation of changes. To day, the Kazakh language is considered to be culturally important, but Russian often tends to be lingua franca on the street.
In terms of religious affiliation, almost half the Kazakh population is Sunni Muslim (47 percent), while Russian Orthodox makes up a substantial and sizeable portion of the population (44 percent). The rest of the population consists of Protestant denominations, Roman Catholics and Jews. Like several other predominantly Muslim countries in the Central Asian region, Kazakhstan is a moderate country in regard to religion.
Human Development
Almost the entire Kazakh population can read and write. Literacy estimates range from 97 percent to 99 percent for the entire population. This high rate of literacy appears to be a consequence of the former Soviet influence and the support of state funds on education. Although there is a shortage of educational facilities, amenities, and pay for teachers is low, Kazakhstan still enjoys a better system of education than many of its neighbors.
About 2.8 percent of GDP is spent in the country on educational expenditures. About 4.3 percent of GDP is spent on health expenditures. Access to sanitation, water, and health care is considered to be generally good.
In the post-Soviet years, a lack of funds, deteriorating facilities, and a short supply of both pharmaceuticals and doctors, have adversely affected the public health system in Kazakhstan. Although average life expectancy rates are at the respectable level of 68.5 years (63 years for men and 74 years for women), child health care is poor and infant mortality rates as well as contagious diseases are on the rise. Indeed, several potentially epidemic diseases, such as diphtheria, viral hepatitis, cholera, tuberculosis, bubonic plague and AIDs, have all been recorded in Kazakhstan.
One notable measure used to determine a country's quality of life is the Human Development Index (HDI), which has been compiled annually since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The HDI is a composite of several indicators, which measure a country's achievements in three main arenas of human development: longevity, knowledge and education, as well as economic standard of living. In a recent ranking of 169 countries, the HDI placed Kazakhstan in the high human development category at 66th place. Note: Although the concept of human development is complicated and cannot be properly captured by values and indices, the HDI, which is calculated and updated annually, offers a wide-ranging assessment of human development in certain countries, not based solely upon traditional economic and financial indicators.
Written by Dr. Denise Youngblood Coleman, Editor in Chief, www.countrywatch.com; see Bibliography for research sources.
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