Germans of Kazakhstan

Germans of Kazakhstan
  • Kasachstandeutsche
  • Қазақстандық немістер
Total population
226,092 (2021 census)[1]
Languages
German, Kazakh and Russian
Religion
Protestantism; minorities of Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodoxy, Irreligious
Related ethnic groups
Russians Kazakhstanis, German Poles
Share of ethnic Germans in Kazakhstan by district (2023)

The Germans of Kazakhstan (German: Kasachstandeutsche; Kazakh: Қазақстандық немістер) are a minority in Kazakhstan, and make up a small percentage of the population. Today they live mostly in the northeastern part of the country between the cities of Astana and Oskemen, the majority being urban dwellers.[2]

Their number peaked at nearly 1 million (957 thousand people per 1989 census) near the time of the Soviet dissolution, but most have emigrated since then, usually to Germany or Russia. However, after a significant decrease from 1989 to 2009, by 2015 the number had seen a slight increase of a few thousand, the first time since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Between 2009 and 2021 the German population had increased by 26.7%, though mostly due to changes in patterns of ethnic identity rather than actual population growth.

  1. ^ https://minorityrights.org/country/kazakhstan/#:~:text=Kazakhstan's%20unusually%20diverse%20ethnic%20makeup,Central%20Asian%20groups%20moving%20west.
  2. ^ Assessment for Germans in Kazakhstan Archived 2011-05-25 at the Wayback Machine, The MAR Project