Ethno-Demographic Evolution and Formation of the Sovereign Demographic System in Kazakhstan

Abstract

The article analyzes the formation of demographic system on an autochthonous basis in the Republic of Kazakhstan. It shows that the algorithm of the functioning of sovereign demographic system stems from the peculiarities of the Kazakh lifestyle in the Soviet era when before the collapse of the Soviet Union more than 60 % of ethnic representatives had lived in rural areas, preserving their traditional variants of demographic behavior. The core of the urban population was made up of European peoples who moved to Kazakhstan mainly as a result of external migrations. In the 1990s, a considerable part of the European component emigrated. In the second decade of the 21st century, the role of external migration (both emigration and immigration) has been reduced to a minimum; the population dynamics are determined by the reproduction of the Kazakh ethnos — the majority of the population in the republic (both rural and urban). Nevertheless, the heritage of the Soviet era still influences the functioning of the sovereign demographic system. First of all, it is displayed in the evolution of the Kazakh age structure affected by the demographic explosion in the middle of the 20th century. A feature of the current demographic situation in the republic is the rapid urbanization of autochthons, mostly young people. There is a stage of “quantitative” development of urban space, when a significant part of the urban population is represented by former rural residents who transfer corresponding reproductive attitudes to their new residence. Thus, for the first time in the modern history of Kazakhstan there is a demographic system functioning on an autochthonous basis.