Kazakhstan is a multiethnic country where the indigenous ethnic group, the Kazakhs, comprise the majority of the population. As of 2021, the population of Kazakhstan is 69% Kazakhs, 15.5% Russians, 3% Uzbeks, 2.5% Ukrainians, 1.5% Uyghurs and 1.1% Tatars. The official languages of Kazakhstan are Kazakh and Russian. Both Kazakh and Russian are used on coequal grounds.[1]
Languages of Kazakhstan | |
---|---|
Official | Kazakh (national/state language), Russian (official) |
Main | Russian language |
Minority | Ukrainian; German; Uzbek; Uyghur; Tatar; Kyrgyz; Azerbaijani; Korean; |
Foreign | English, German |
Signed | Kazakh Sign Language |
Keyboard layout | |
Source | Languages committee of the Ministry of culture and sports |
Alphabet | Kazakh alphabets Kazakh Braille |
Other languages natively spoken in Kazakhstan are Dungan, Ili Turki, Ingush, Plautdietsch,[2] and Sinte Romani. A number of more recent immigrant languages, such as Belarusian, Korean,[3] Azerbaijani, and Greek are also spoken.[4]
Per the 2021 census[5]
:Language | % | Script |
---|---|---|
Kazakh | 80.1 | Cyrillic, Latin |
Russian | 83.7 | Cyrillic |
Uzbek | 2.5 | Latin, Cyrillic |
Uyghur | 0.9 | Perso-Arabic, Latin |
Ukrainian | 0.1 | Cyrillic |
Tatar | 0.5 | Cyrillic |
German | 0.6 | Latin |
Azerbaijani | 0.5 | Cyrillic, Latin, Perso-Arabic |
Belarusian | 0.1 | Cyrillic |
Chechen | 0.1 | Cyrillic |
English | 35.1 | Latin |
Chinese | 0.1 | Chinese characters |
Kyrgyz | 0.2 | Cyrillic, Perso-Arabic |
Turkish | 0.6 | Latin |
French | 0.1 | Latin |
Korean | 0.3 | Hangul |
Arabic | 0.1 | Arabic alphabet |
Other | 2.7 | — |