Kazakhstan’s population nears 18.4 million

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - As of January 1, 2019, Kazakhstan's population reached 18,395,700 people, increasing by 238.6 thousand people, or 1.3%, year on year, Kazinform has learned from the Statistics Committee of the Kazakh Ministry of National Economy.

As of the above reporting date, the urban population amounted to 10 million 638,700 people, or 57.8 percent of the total population, while the rural population equaled to 7 million 757 thousand people or 42.2 percent.

In January-December last year, 3,156 deaths of children under 1 year of age (3,150 in January-December 2017) were registered in Kazakhstan. The number of infant deaths rose by 0.2 pct year on year. In 2018, the infant mortality rate was 7.93 deaths per 1,000 births (8.07).

Between January and December 2018, 1,617 infant deaths (1,568 a year earlier), or 51.1% (50.3%) of the total number of infant deaths, were due to the conditions that arise in the perinatal period. The numbers of infant deaths were as follows: 625 (731) or 19.8% (23.2%) from congenital anomalies, 197 (195) or 6.2% (6.3%) from respiratory diseases, and 150 (168) or 4.8% (5.3%) from accidents, poisoning, and injuries.

During that period last year, the number of arrivals in Kazakhstan has decreased by 20.5 percent year-on-year, whereas the number of departures has increased by 11.1% YOY. The country's migration processes take place mainly with the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The shares of arrivals from the CIS countries and departures for these countries amounted to 78.9% and 90.1%, respectively.

The number of migrants moving within the country has declined by 4.8%. Due to interregional movements, the positive change of population migration has been in Shymkent (36,376 people), Almaty (33,025), and Astana (23,678).