According to the Bureau of National Statistics, the birth rate in Kazakhstan has declined. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Sputnik Kazakhstan.
The average number of children per family, which had remained at 1.1 for several years, has now dropped to 1. In densely populated southern regions, large families are more common: in Turkistan region – 2.1, in Kyzylorda region – 1.7, in Zhambyl region – 1.4, in Shymkent city – 1.2. In major megacities, on the contrary, the indicator is below the national average: in Almaty – 0.6, in Astana – 0.8.
The lowest indicator was recorded in East Kazakhstan region – 0.5. In 14 out of 20 regions of Kazakhstan, the average number of children decreased this year compared to last year. The decline in the number of children per family is due to social and economic factors.
One of them is women's decision to have fewer children. This trend has been observed for the fourth consecutive year. The birth rate has decreased by 24.9% over the past four years.