Signup/Login

About Our Mission

Our Communities
Contact us

About Kazakhstan

"Come with us to die of hunger, of fatigue, of humiliations and of sufferings for the Immaculate
- St. Maximilian Kolbe
The four vows
the Marian Vow, Obedience, Poverty, Chastity

For more information, contact:

Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate

Introduction to Kazakhstan

Article Index
Introduction to Kazakhstan
II. Land and Resources
III. The People of Kazakhstan
IV. The Culture
All Pages

Page 1 of 4

I. INTRODUCTION

K

azakhstan, republic in Central Asia, bounded on the north by Russia; on the east by China; on the south by Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan; and on the west by the Caspian Sea and Russia. Almost all of Kazakhstan is located in the west central portion of the Asian continent; however, a small part of the republic lies west of the Ural River on the European continent. The northern city of Astana (formerly Aqmola) is the capital of the country.

In Kazakh, the official state language, Kazakhstan is called Qazaqstan Respublikasy. The Kazakhs, a Turkic people, constitute a majority of the population. Kazakhstan was part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1922 until December 1991, when it became independent. The republic has maintained a presidential system of government since independence. In 1995 Kazakhstan adopted a new constitution that granted extensive powers to the president.

Prev - Next >>

Facts and Figures

Playing: National Anthem

Official name: Republic of Kazakhstan
Capital: Astana
Area: 2,717,300 sq km;
1,049,200 sq mi

People
Population 15,284,929 (2007 estimate)

Urban/rural distribution
Share urban 56 percent (2005 estimate)
Share rural 44 percent (2005 estimate)

Largest cities, with population
Almaty 1,135,400 (2000 estimate)
Qaraghandy 434,300 (2000 estimate)
Shymkent 359,600 (2000 estimate)
Oskemen 311,300 (1999 estimate)
Semey 269,800 (1999 estimate)

Ethnic groups
Kazakh (Qazaq) 46 percent
Russian 35 percent
Ukrainian 5 percent
German 3 percent
Uzbek 2 percent
Tatar 2 percent
Other 7 percent

Languages
Kazakh (Qazaq, official language); Russian (language of interethnic communication)

Religion
Muslim 43 percent
Atheist 11 percent
Orthodox Christian 10 percent
Roman Catholic 3 percent
Nonreligious 29 percent
Other 4 percent

Government
Form of government Republic
Constitution Adopted 6 September 1995; amended 1998

Economy
Gross domestic product (GDP, in U.S.$) $57.1 billion (2005)
GDP per capita (U.S.$) $3,771.50 (2005)

GDP by economic sector
Agriculture, forestry, fishing 6.8 percent (2005)
Industry 39.5 percent (2005)
Services 53.7 percent (2005)

Employment
Number of workers 8,124,631 (2005)

Workforce share of economic sector
Agriculture, forestry, fishing 35 percent (2003)
Industry 17 percent (2003)
Services 48 percent (2003)
Unemployment rate 8.8 percent (2003)

Monetary unit 1 tenge (T), consisting of 100 tein

Read: Missionary Magazine

The Word Was Made Flesh is a monthly missionary review of MISSiOMARIAE.NET. It publishes articles on the missions and related topics such as the Directives of the Magisterium on the missions, Apostolic spirituality, Mariology, homilies and sermons and more...

Learn more of this wonderful magazine and you can even subscribe online for free.

Participate in our site!

MISSIO MARIAE.NET is created primarily for the missionaries of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, but everyone is invited to participate in any of its parts:

Read mission articles
Watch archived videos
Share your thoughts in the forum

We expect appropriate conduct and behavior in all our site from our users and we are entitle to delete, remove or ban anyone who are not using properly this site without any warning from the site administrator. We thank you for your visit and we look forward to your return. Ave Maria!