Regional Population Change in Kazakhstan during the 1990s and the Impact of Nationality Population Patterns: Results from the Recent Census of Kazakhstan

Abstract

An American geographer specializing in population change and urbanization in the countries of the former USSR examines nationwide and regional total, urban, and rural population change in Kazakhstan for 1989-1999, using data from the recently released 1999 census of Kazakhstan. Of particular interest is the analysis of nationality data in the census, available at a level of detail not matched since the last Soviet census in 1989. For the first time in more than a decade, a detailed investigation is possible of changes in the regional and rural-urban populations of major nationality groups in Kazakhstan during the 1990s. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 018, R12, R23. 10 figures, 15 tables, 35 references. I n a recent paper in Post-Soviet Geography and Economics, this author investigated national and regional urban population trends in Kazakhstan up to 1998 based on official population estimates for 1998 (Rowland, 1999). Although nationality influences on such trends were addressed briefly, that study was especially limited by the general lack of detailed nationality population data for urban and rural areas in the late 1990s. In addition, the population data that were utilized for the late 1990s, both general and nationality, were only estimates rather than actual enumerations. Subsequently, the final results of the 1999 census of Kazakhstan have been published (Agentsvo, 1999a, 2000a, 2000b, 2000c). The first available volumes provide relevant data on oblast-level total, urban, and rural populations in general for both 1989 (the year of the last census of the former Soviet Union or FSU) and 1999 (Agenstvo, 2000a). Additional volumes also provide oblast-level data for the nationalities of Kazakhstan by the total, urban, and rural populations of 1989 and 1999 (Agenstvo, 2000c). In addition, some nationality data are also available in the 1999 census volume on migration (Agenstvo, 2000b). Therefore, the purpose of this paper will be to investigate general national and regional total, urban, and rural population trends in Kazakhstan from 1989 to 1999, a period of considerable political, economic, and social change in the republic. In addition, national and regional total, urban, and rural population trends for the major nationalities will be investigated for this period. Furthermore, regional population distribution and redistribution trends of the total general population and the major nationalities will also be discussed. The impact of regional nationality population patterns on the more general regional population trends will also be assessed at the total, urban, and rural levels. •Professor, Department of Geography, California State University, 5500 University Parkway, San Bernardino, CA 92407-2397. The author would like to thank Jane Rowland for her excellent typing.