Photograph of a traditional Kazakh rug by Flickr user Mark Heard (CC-usage).

Editor’s note: During Soviet times, Kazakhstan was a rich tapestry of Asian and European ethnic groups.  Recent census data suggests that this may be ending. neweurasia’s Mursya reports.  This a translation; check out the original post here.

Universale est unum de multis et in multis.  / The universal is unity of many upon many.

– al-Farabi

Earlier this month the results of Kazakhstan’s 2009 census were released.  To begin with, we grew by6.8%, or more than a million in absolute numbers. A bit strange that over the past 10 years the villages did add more.  In fact, their share of residents declined.  There may be some dynamic of urbanization in Kazakhstan that I do not understand.

Next, the proportion of men in the total population has increased, but only slightly: if, in 1999, 1000 women battered 929 men, now there’s two more.  We appreciate more of the “weaker sex”. =)  Meanwhile, in the villages the ratio increased from 1000 women to 883 men to 994 men.

Next, the ethnic break-down: Kazakhs were the most, comprising a fifth, a little bit more than Uzbeks and Uighurs, who also increased. It’s a bit depressing to see the Russian, Ukrainian, and German ethnic groups decrease during the same time-span.  The grand total: Kazakhs – 63,1%, Russian – 23,7%, Uzbeks – 2,8%, Ukrainians – 2,1%, Uighur – 1,4%, Tatars – 1,3 %, Germans – 1,1%, and other nationalities – 4,5%.

The numbers prophesy that Kazakhstan its European identity and increasing the share of its Asian one.  If this trend continues unabated, then I predict we will see a very, very different Kazakhstan by 2030.