List of cities in Kazakhstan

Last updated January 17, 2025

As of April 2024, the share of Kazakhstan's urban population is 62.3%.^[1]

Name in English	Name in Kazakh	Previous name	City since	1979	1989	1999	2008	2023	Status	Province
Aktau	Ақтау Aqtau [ɑqˈtɑw]	Shevchenko	1963		159,245	143,396	180,373	270,886	2	Mangystau Province
Aktobe	Ақтөбе Aqtöbe [ɑqtɵˈbʲe]	Aktyubinsk	1880	190,569	253,532	253,088	285,507	560,820	2	Aktobe Province
Almaty	Алматы Almaty [ɑɫmɑˈtə]	Vernyy, Alma-Ata	1867	909,644	1,127,884	1,129,356	1,328,362	2,217,700	1	Capital 1929–1997
Astana	Астана Astana [ɑstɑˈnɑ]	Akmola, Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Nur-Sultan	1831	233,638	277,365	312,965	389,189	1,417,214	1	Capital
Arkalyk	Арқалық Arqalyq [ɑrqɑˈɫəq]		1965	47,963	62,367	45,700	56,614	28,907	4	Kostanay Province
Atyrau	Атырау Atyrau [ɑtəˈrɑw]	Guryev	1885	130,916	149,261	142,497	158,308	315,274	2	Atyrau province
Baikonur	Байқоңыр Baiqoñyr [bɑjqoˈŋər]	Leninsk	1969		74,700	60,200	59,452	76,019	1	Kyzylorda Province
Balqash	Балқаш Balqaş [bɑɫˈqɑʂ]		1937	78,145	86,742	81,100	86,897	81,364	3	Karagandy Province
Jezkazgan	Жезқазған Jezqazğan [ʒʲezqɑzˈʁɑn]	Dzhezkazgan	1954	89,200	107,053	103,400	112,154	85,012	3	Karagandy Province
Karaganda	Қарағанды Qarağandy [qɑˌrɑʁɑnˈdə]		1934	571,877	507,318	436,864	451,800	515,819	2	Karagandy Province
Kentau	Кентау Kentau [kʲenˈtɑw]		1955	62,991	63,784	58,100	60,799	74,464	4	South Kazakhstan Province
Kyzylorda	Қызылорда Qyzylorda [qɯˌzɯɫorˈdɑ]	Perovsk, Ak-Mechet	1867	156,128	150,425	157,364	182,929	315,550	2	Kyzylorda Province
Kokshetau	Көкшетау Kökşetau [ˌkɵkʃʲeˈtɑw]	Stanitsa Kokchetavskaya, Kokchetav	1824	103,162	135,424	123,389	132,753	191,105	2	Akmola Province
Kostanay	Қостанай Qostanai [qostɑˈnɑj]	Kustanay	1893	164,500	223,558	221,429	249,395	265,718	2	Kostanay Province
Janaözen	Жаңаөзен Jañaözen [ʒɑˌŋɑɵˈzʲen]	Noviy Uzen	1968	34,000	48,300	51,100	60,796	152,431	3	Mangystau Province
Pavlodar	Павлодар Pavlodar [pɑʋɫəˈdɑr]		1861	272,895	329,681	320,400	354,809	367,254	2	Pavlodar Province
Petropavl	Петропавл Petropavl [pʲetrəˈpɑʋ(ə)ɫ]	Petropavlovsk	1807	206,559	239,606	216,300	208,547	222,076	2	North Kazakhstan Province
Ridder	Риддер Ridder [ˈrʲidʲːɪr]	Leninogorsk	1934	68,135	68,730	56,269	54,252	52,068	3	East Kazakhstan Region
Saran	Саран Saran [sɑˈrɑn]		1954	54,878	63,900	48,500	49,082	34,636	3	Karagandy Province
Satpayev	Сәтбаев Sätbaev [sætˈpɑjɪf]		1973	48,700	59,343	62,900	73,874	68,379	3	Karagandy Region
Semey	Семей Semei [sʲeˈmʲej]	Alash-kala, Semipalatinsk	1782	282,574	317,112	292,500	312,136	328,782	3	East Kazakhstan Region
Stepnogorsk	Степногорск Stepnogorsk [stʲɪpnɐˈɡorsk]		1964	46,700	63,300	50,900	47,705	68,460	3	Akmola Province
Taldykorgan	Талдықорған Taldyqorğan [tɑɫˌdəqorˈʁɑn]		1944	87,948	118,623	107,100	114,728	168,674	2	Almaty Province
Taraz	Тараз Taraz [tɑˈrɑz]	Talas, Zhambyl, Aulie-Ata	ancient	263,793	303,961	330,125	398,233	427,394	2	Jambyl Province
Temirtau	Теміртау Temırtau [tʲemɘrˈtɑw]		1945	213,026	213,551	181,800	179,520	171,890	3	Karagandy Province
Turkistan	Түркістан Türkıstan [tʉrk(ɘ)sˈtɑn]		ancient	66741	77,692	87,600	109,673	220,133	3	South Kazakhstan Province
Oral	Орал Oral [woˈrɑɫ]	Uralsk	1613	167,352	199,522	212,900	255,489	254,380	2	West Kazakhstan Region
Oskemen	Өскемен Öskemen [w̜ɵskʲeˈmʲen]	Ust-Kamenogorsk	1868	274,287	322,221	310,950	344,421	400,142	2	East Kazakhstan Region
Shymkent	Шымкент Şymkent [ʃəmˈkʲent]	Chimkent, Chernyayev	Middle Ages	321,535	380,091	390,200	454,583	1,216,000	1	Shymkent
Shakhtinsk	Шахтинск Şahtinsk [ˈʃɑχtʲɪnsk]		1961	50,382	65,600	54,800	54,748	39,185	3	Karagandy Region
Schuchinsk	Щучинск Şçuçinsk [ˈɕːutɕɪnsk]		1939		55,500	47,900	50,128	47,625	4	Akmola Province
Ekibastuz	Екібастұз Ekıbastūz [ˌjekɘbɑsˈtʊz]		1957	65,871	135,006	137,200	158,165	152,509	3	Pavlodar Region

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Central Asia is a region of Asia bounded by the Caspian Sea to the southwest, European Russia to the northwest, China and Mongolia to the east, Afghanistan and Iran to the south, and Siberia to the north. It includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian suffix "-stan" in both respective native languages and most other languages.

Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a small portion situated in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbekistan to the south, and Turkmenistan to the southwest, with a coastline along the Caspian Sea. Its capital is Astana, while the largest city and leading cultural and commercial hub is Almaty.

Kazakhstan is located in Central Asia, with a small portion in Eastern Europe. With an area of about 2,724,900 square kilometers (1,052,100 sq mi) Kazakhstan is more than twice the combined size of the other four Central Asian states and 60% larger than Alaska. The country borders Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan to the south; Russia to the north; Russia and the Caspian Sea to the west; and China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to the east.

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. Some use the word Kazakh to refer to the Kazakh ethnic group and language and Kazakhstani to refer to Kazakhstan and its citizens regardless of ethnicity, but it is common to use Kazakh in both senses. It is expected that by 2050, the population will range from 23.5 to 27.7 million people.

The economy of Kazakhstan is the largest in Central Asia in both absolute and per capita terms. As of 2023, Kazakhstan attracted more than US$370 billion of foreign investments since becoming an independent republic after the dissolution of the former Soviet Union.

Astana, formerly known as Nur-Sultan, Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, and Akmola, is the capital and second-largest city of Kazakhstan with a population of 1,350,228 within the city limits after Almaty, which had been the capital until 1997. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim River in the north-central part of Kazakhstan, within the Akmola Region, though administered as a city with special status separately from the rest of the region. Initially founded as Akmoly in 1830, the city was later renamed Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, and Akmola before adopting the name Astana in 1998, which means "capital city" in Kazakh. In 2019, the city briefly adopted the name Nur-Sultan in honor of former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, but it returned to the name Astana in 2022.

Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia, lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir mountain ranges. Bishkek is the capital and largest city. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and China to the east and southeast. Ethnic Kyrgyz make up the majority of the country's over 7 million people, followed by significant minorities of Uzbeks and Russians.

The Kazakhs are a Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia and Eastern Europe. There are Kazakh communities in Kazakhstan's border regions in Russia, northern Uzbekistan, northwestern China, western Mongolia and Iran. The Kazakhs arose from the merging of various medieval tribes of Turkic and Mongolic origin in the 15th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kokshetau</span> City in Akmola Region, Kazakhstan

Kokshetau, formerly known as Kokchetav between 1868 and 1993, is a lakeside city in northern Kazakhstan and the capital of Akmola Region. It stretches along the southern shore of Lake Kopa, lying in the north of Kokshetau Hills, a northern subsystem of the Kokshetau Uplands (Saryarka) and the southern edge of the Ishim Steppe. It is named after Mount Kokshe.

Oral, also known as Uralsk, is a city in northwestern Kazakhstan, at the confluence of the Ural and Chagan rivers close to the Russian border. As it is located on the western bank of the Ural river, it is considered geographically in Europe. It is the capital of the West Kazakhstan Region. The ethnic composition is majority Kazakh (71%), followed by the second-largest ethnic group Russians (25%). Population: 271,900 ; 194,905.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atyrau Region</span> Region of Kazakhstan

Atyrau Region formerly known as Guryev Region until 1991, is one of the regions of Kazakhstan, in the western part of the country around the northeast of the Caspian Sea. Its capital is the city of Atyrau, with a population of 355,117; the region itself has a population of 681,241, of which Kazakhs make up more than 90%.

The saiga antelope, or saiga, is a species of antelope which during antiquity inhabited a vast area of the Eurasian steppe, spanning the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains in the northwest and Caucasus in the southwest into Mongolia in the northeast and Dzungaria in the southeast. During the Pleistocene, it ranged across the mammoth steppe from the British Isles to Beringia. Today, the dominant subspecies only occurs in Kalmykia and Astrakhan Oblast of Russia and in the Ural, Ustyurt and Betpak-Dala regions of Kazakhstan. A portion of the Ustyurt population migrates south to Uzbekistan and occasionally to Turkmenistan in winter. It is regionally extinct in Romania, Ukraine, Moldova, China and southwestern Mongolia. The Mongolian subspecies occurs only in western Mongolia.

West Kazakhstan Region is a region of Kazakhstan. The region has a population of 695,000 as of July 1st, 2024. Its administrative centre is Oral, a city of about 250,000 inhabitants.

There has been a substantial population of Russian Kazakhstanis, or simply Russian Kazakhs, which are ethnic Russians living in Kazakhstan as their citizen, since the 19th century. Although their numbers have been reduced since the breakup of the Soviet Union, they remain prominent in Kazakh society today. Russians formed a plurality of the Kazakh SSR's population for several decades.

Koryo-saram or Koryoin are ethnic Koreans of the former Soviet Union, who descend from Koreans that were living in the Russian Far East.

Oskemen ) or Ust-Kamenogorsk is the largest city in the east of Kazakhstan and the administrative center of East Kazakhstan Region of Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan is a multiethnic country where the indigenous ethnic group, the Kazakhs, comprise the majority of the population. As of 2024, ethnic Kazakhs are about 71% of the population and ethnic Russians in Kazakhstan in 2024 was about 14.9% in second place. These are the two dominant ethnic groups in the country with a wide array of other groups represented, including Ukrainians, Uzbeks, Germans, Tatars, Chechens, Ingush, Uyghurs, Koreans, and Meskhetian Turks.

Aktau is a city in south-west Kazakhstan, on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea. Its name, 'white mountain' in Kazakh, may be due to its cliffs that overlook the Caspian. From 1964 to 1991, the city was named Shevchenko, after the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko who was exiled near in a settlement about 100 km to the northwest. Aktau is on the Mangyshlak Peninsula in the Mangystau Region.

Aktobe is a major city located on the Ilek River in western Kazakhstan. It serves as the administrative center of the Aktobe Region and is an important cultural, economic, and industrial hub in the region. As of 2023, the city has a population of 560,820, making it the fourth-largest city in Kazakhstan and the largest in the western part of the country. It covers an expansive area of approximately 428,469 km² and is strategically located to serve as a regional center for trade and commerce.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shymkent</span> City in Kazakhstan

Shymkent is a city in southern Kazakhstan, located near the border with Uzbekistan. It holds the status of a city of republican significance, one of only three cities in Kazakhstan with this distinction, alongside Almaty and Astana. As of June 2018, Shymkent had an estimated population of 1,002,291, making it the third-most populous city in the country, after Almaty and Astana.

References

↑ "Population of the Republic of Kazakhstan by gender and type of locality (as of April 1, 2024)". stat.gov.kz.

External links

Map at archive.today (archived 5 January 2013)

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[:0-1] "Population of the Republic of Kazakhstan by gender and type of locality (as of April 1, 2024)". stat.gov.kz.

[1]

v t e Cities in Kazakhstan
Capital	Astana
Other cities	Aktau Aktobe Almaty Arkalyk Atyrau Baikonur Balkhash Ekibastuz Jezkazgan Kapchagay Karaganda Kentau Kokshetau Kostanay Kyzylorda Pavlodar Petropavlovsk Qosshy Ridder Saran Satbayev Semey Shymkent Stepnogorsk Taldıqorğan Taraz Temirtau Turkistan Uralsk Ust-Kamenogorsk Zhanaozen

v t e List of cities in Asia
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Dependencies and other territories	British Indian Ocean Territory Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Hong Kong Macau
Category Asia portal

v t e List of towns in Asia
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Category Asia portal

v t e Lists of cities in Europe
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Dependencies and other entities	Gibraltar

v t e List of towns in Europe
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States with limited recognition	Abkhazia Kosovo Northern Cyprus South Ossetia Transnistria
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List of cities in Kazakhstan

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