Economy

Imports
$57.9 billion (2022). Cars ($3.21B), Broadcasting Equipment ($1.61B), Packaged Medicaments ($1.27B), Vehicle Bodies (including cabs) for the motor vehicles (8701 to 8705) ($1.03B), and Planes, Helicopters, and/or Spacecraft ($996M), importing mostly from Russia ($16.5B), China ($16.2B), Germany ($2.87B), South Korea ($2.26B), and Turkey ($1.67B).

Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of  age)
• 81.1% have an account with a financial institution
• 20.9% have a credit card
• 31.4% make online purchases

Ease of doing business
It is very easy to conduct business (rated 79.6 out of 100) ranked 4th out of 25 European & Central Asian countries and ranked 25th out of 190 countries worldwide (2023, World Bank).

Exports
$98.7 billion (2022).  Crude Petroleum ($47.6B), Gold ($9.73B), Refined Copper ($3.8B), Ferroalloys ($3.29B), and Radioactive Chemicals ($2.85B), exporting mostly to China ($13.4B), Italy ($12.4B), Russia ($8.78B), United Kingdom ($8.01B), and Netherlands ($5.48B).

In 2022, Kazakhstan was the world’s biggest exporter of Radioactive Chemicals ($2.85B) and Chromium Oxides and Hydroxides ($242M).

Economic freedom
‘Moderately free’ (62 out of 100) ranked 13th out of 39 Asia-Pacific countries, ranked 66th out of 176 countries worldwide (2024, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal).

Global Innovation Index
Ranked 3rd out of 10 Central and Southern Asian countries, 81st out of 132 worldwide.

The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.

Media

Media languages Kazakh, Russian and English.

The media scene is dominated by state-owned and pro-government outlets. Most major outlets are controlled by the government directly or indirectly. Nearly all pro-opposition print titles have been closed or forced into exile. Those that remain are “collapsing under the impact of fines”, says Reporters Without Borders (RSF). TV is the most popular medium. The government operates national networks. Russian stations are carried via cable and satellite. The internet is “closely controlled, with mass surveillance, imprisonment of bloggers and frequent cuts in access to news websites, social networks and messaging services”, says RSF.

The press

Kazakhstanskaya Pravda – state-run, Russian-language
Yegemen Qazaqstan – state-run, Kazakh-language
Ekspress-K – private, Russian-language
Zhas Alash – private, Kazakh-language
Liter – private, daily
Vremya – private, Russian-language
Karavan – private, weekly

Television

Qazaqstan – state-owned, in Kazakh and Russian
Khabar TV – state-owned, news network
El-Arna – state-owned, news and entertainment
Kazakh Commercial TV (KTK) – private, in Kazakh and Russian
Eurasia 1 – majority government-owned
Channel 31 – private
Channel 7 – private

Radio

Qazaq Radiosy – state-owned, broadcasts in Kazakh and Russian
Europa Plus – private, Almaty, Astana
Tengri FM – private, Almaty
Russkoye Radio-Aziya – private, Almaty, Astana

News agency

Kazinform – state-owned; English-language pages
Interfax Kazakhstan – a service of Russian news agency Interfax; English-language pages
Tengrinews – private, news website

Internet Data

Internet users
92.3% penetration, 18.19 million

Share of web traffic by device
65.62% mobile phones, 33.49% computers (laptops and desktops), 0.87% tablet devices and 0.02% other devices.

Median speed of mobile Internet connection
35.49  Mbps

Median speed of fixed Internet connection
51.41 Mbps

Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 133.1%

Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 95.6%

Most popular web search engines
Google (75.78%), Yandex (22.98%), Bing (0.84%), DuckDuckGo (0.12%), Yahoo! (0.12%), other (0.15%).

Most used social media
Pinterest (24.37%), YouTube (17.37%), Instagram (16.48%), Facebook (15.75%), Twitter (10.78%), VKontakte (9.49%), Reddit (3.37%), other (2.39%).

Social statistics

Life expectancy
70 yrs (2021)

Corruption perceptions Index
Kazakhstan scored 36 out of 100, ranked 101 out 180 countries worldwide.

CO2 emissions
11.3 metric tons per capita

World Happiness Index
Kazakhstan ranked 40 out of 146 countries, with a score of 6.234.

Current education expenditure
100% of total expenditure in public institutions

Current health expenditure
3.79% of GDP