The population of Kazakhstan counts 18 690 200 people. About 58.5% of it live in cities, and 41.5% are rural population. In terms of number of citizens, the country ranks 64th.
Kazakhstan is a multinational state where many ethnic groups live in peace and harmony. The overwhelming majority of the population is represented by Kazakhs (68.51%), Russians make up 18.85%, Uzbeks – 3.25%, Ukrainians – 1.42% and others. During the Soviet Union years, many national minorities like Koreans, Germans, Chechens, Turks were deported to Kazakhstan by order of Joseph Stalin. For example, before the collapse of the USSR, the country was home to approximately 1 million Germans who arrived during World War II. As soon as the Soviet Union collapsed, most of them emigrated to Germany.
The resettlement of Russians to Kazakhstan is mainly linked to the Soviet space program and the developing agricultural lands campaign during the reign of Nikita Khrushchev. In the 90s, there was a large wave of emigration of Russians and representatives of other nationalities.
As for the language, Kazakh is the state language, and Russian has the status of an official language, which is often used in business and interethnic communication.
