Official estimates put the population of Kazakhstan at 16.455 million as of February 2011, of which 46% is rural and 54% is urban. The 2009 population estimate is 6.8% higher than the population reported in the last census from January 1999. The decline in population that began after 1989 has been reversed. Men and women make up 48.3% and 51.7% of the population, respectively.

The ethnic Kazakhs represent 63.1% of the population and ethnic Russians 23.7%,[1] with a rich array of other groups represented, including Tatars (1.3%), Ukrainians (2.1%), Uzbeks (2.8%), Belarusians, Uyghurs (1.4%), Azerbaijanis, Poles, and Lithuanians. Some minorities such as Germans (1.1%) (Germans who had previously settled in Russia, especially Volga Germans), Ukrainians, Koreans, Kurds, Chechens, Meskhetian Turks, and Russian political opponents of the regime had been deported to Kazakhstan in the 1930s and 1940s by Stalin; some of the bigger Soviet labour camps (Gulag) existed in the country.

Kazakhstan is a bilingual country: the Kazakh language, spoken by 64.4% of the population, has the status of the "state" language, while Russian, which is spoken by almost all Kazakhstanis, is declared the "official" language, and is used routinely in business. English gained its popularity among the youth since the collapse of the USSR.
Religion: Muslim 47%, Russian Orthodox 44%, Protestant 2%, other 7%.