The national report of the Republic of Kazakhstan on housing and sustainable city development HABITAT III (hereafter – National report) was prepared by the Committee for construction and housing and utilities infrastructure of the Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan with participation of the involved central and local executive bodies.
The national report is an international initiative, one of the fundamental documents on providing sustainable city development and appropriate population housing.
A number of issues were considered in the National report, relating to the sustainable development of inhabited areas, including population problems of inhabited areas, town planning, environment and urbanization, legislation in the field of territory development management, urban economy, and others.
The national report was based on the existing statistics and other departmental, and regional information.
For the period of review since 1996, there has been a significant improvement in the state of the town and rural settlements, including their social and economic development, access to necessary engineering and transport infrastructure, and housing; a number of regulatory legal acts were accepted, promoting the realization of strategic goals.
The analysis allowed us to identify the main challenges and threats and also the possibility of sustainable development of inhabited areas and provision of housing for a long time period.

The Republic of Kazakhstan is 63rd on the list of counties with large populations. As of the beginning of 2016, the total population of the country was 17,670.6 thousand. of people with low population density about 6.51 people per km².
During 1996-2015 the population of Kazakhstan increased by 2190 thousand. of people or by 14.1 % (Figure 1.1). For 20 years the annual rate of growth of population is an average of 100.6 %, and for the last 10 years – 101.5 %. For the last 20 years, the lowest population was registered in 2001–14 851.1 thousand people. Population decline till 2001 is primarily a result of active population migration to other countries and the out-migration of the Russian-speaking population to ethnical native land.

Population increase is determined by positive natural increase (Figure 1.2). For 20 years the coefficient of natural increase was enlarged from 5.6 ‰ in 1996 to 15.18 ‰ in 2015. The enlargement of coefficient of natural increase was promoted by birth rate increase in the country and reduction of death rate. For 2004-2011 the positive migration balance is observed. Population increase in Kazakhstan will continue and for further positive natural increase, which requires simultaneous solution of the existing issues, related to access to associated infrastructure, including education, healthcare, housing provision, employment, etc.

Nowadays an intensive population increase and relative density of urban population are the characteristics of Kazakhstan. On the basis of new space forms of urban population – urban agglomerations, and megalopolises, the urbanization, suburbanization, and education processes are extensively developing. As of the beginning of 2016 17 670.6 thous. Of people living in the country, 10 066.5 thous. of the – urban population and 7 604.0 thous. of people – rural, there are 87 cities, 30 small towns, and 6693 villages.
For 1996-2015 the level of urbanization increased from 55.8 % to 57.0%, urban population increased by 1431.3 thousand people or by 16.6 %. However, due to the administrative and territorial transformation of territories in 2006, urban settlements outside the territory of the subordination of city administration were transformed into rural areas, which led to a decrease in the level of urbanization in the country. Thus, in 2006-2007, the share of urban population decreased from 57.4% to 53.1%.
In terms of the regional makeup of Kazakhstan the level of urbanization ranges from 24.2% in the Almaty region to 78.7% in the Karaganda region. The peculiarity of the formation of urban population resettlement in Kazakhstan is a large increase in the population of big and large cities, thus reducing the population in the medium and small cities.
Astana, Almaty, and regional centers are the points of economic growth and migrational attraction. They are centers of settlement systems of international, national, inter-regional, and regional importance that unite them with transport systems and form a base space frame of the country.