Almaty is the largest city in Kazakhstan. It is located in the south-eastern part of the country, at the foot of the Trans-Ili Alatau. The population of Almaty is about 1.7 million inhabitants. Although the city is no longer the capital of the country, it remains an important financial, cultural and economic object of Central Asia. This article is devoted to the demographic trends of Almaty.
Dynamics
Vernaya fortification was founded in the middle of the 19th century to protect the Russian borders from attacks by Kokand khans. In ancient times, there was already a large settlement, which was called Almaty. However, it was completely destroyed in the XIV century by the soldiers of Timur. Then the population totaled only 470 people. All of them were officers and soldiers of Major Peremyshlsky’s detachment.
Then peasants and Kazakhs from Siberia and the provinces of Central Russia begin to move here. A Tatar settlement is formed in the neighborhood. In 1859, the population of Almaty was already five thousand. It should be noted that until 1921 the city was called Verny. Then it was renamed. In 1867, he was given the status of a city.
In 1879, the population of Almaty was already 18, 423 thousand people. Over the next thirty years, the number of inhabitants doubled. In anticipation of the Second World War, the population of Almaty has already exceeded two hundred thousand. Over the next twenty years, the number of city residents doubled. It should be noted that from 1929 to 1997, Almaty was the capital of Kazakhstan. This contributed to such a rapid population growth. In 1970, 665 thousand people lived in the city. In the early 1980s, the population of Almaty already exceeded one million. In 1989, 1, 071, 900 people lived in the city. In 1999, it was 1.129 million. In 2009, 1, 361, 877 people lived in the city. In 2014, the population of the city exceeded 1.5 million.
Current performance
Today, Almaty has the status of the southern capital of Kazakhstan, the largest financial, scientific and cultural center of the country. It houses the residence of the head of state and government. The population of Almaty, according to 2016, is 1.713 million people. This is 1.1 times more than in 2015. Thus, the number of residents of the southern capital of Kazakhstan for the year increased by 160 thousand people. The population of the Almaty agglomeration has long exceeded two million. The city itself is divided into eight districts. Until 2014, there were seven of them.
National composition
The population of the city of Almaty is very diverse. Until the middle of the 20th century, the share of Russians in its composition reached 70%. And only in the mid-2000s, Kazakhs were in the majority. Today, Russians are about a quarter of the population of Almaty.
The last census was carried out in 2010. She showed that 51.06% of the city’s population are Kazakhs, 33.02% are Russians, 5.73% are Uyghurs, 1.9% are Koreans, 1.82% are Tatars, 1.24% are Ukrainians. The share of all other ethnic groups individually does not exceed 1%. Among them are Azerbaijanis, Germans, Uzbeks, Dungans, Turks, Kyrgyz, Chechens, Ingush, Belarusians, Armenians and Kurds.
It should be noted that before the collapse of the USSR, the situation was fundamentally different. According to the 1989 census, Kazakhs made up only 23.8% of the city’s population. But the share of Russians then exceeded 50%. Since then, the situation has changed. Kazakhs are now in the majority. This is due to the collapse of the USSR and the subsequent separation of its peoples.
