World Language Map

Languages spoken in Kazakhstan

30 living languages are mapped in Kazakhstan. The most widely spoken, by Unicode CLDR’s estimate, is Russian (72% of the population). They belong to 7 language families, the largest being Turkic (13 languages).

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The filter only changes what is drawn. Tap the map to list every language at a spot, whichever family is shown. You can also pick any family from its own page.

Key

Language families (largest ten)

  • Atlantic-Congo
  • Austronesian
  • Sino-Tibetan
  • Indo-European
  • Afro-Asiatic
  • Nuclear Trans New Guinea
  • Otomanguean
  • Austroasiatic
  • Tai-Kadai
  • Pama-Nyungan

Everything else

  • All other families Smaller families, isolates and unclassified languages.
  • Point A language with no area map. The dot sits at its Glottolog position, in its family colour.

How to read the map. Each colour is a language family: a group of languages that share a common ancestor. The ten largest families have their own colour and every other family is grey. Areas are see-through, so where two languages share a place the colours mix. Tap anywhere to list every language whose area covers that spot. Areas are generalisations drawn from published atlases, many of them decades old, and cities are multilingual, so an area never says that everyone there speaks the language. A dot marks a language that has no area map. The family name is always given in words, because colour alone is hard to tell apart for some people.

Languages of Kazakhstan at a glance

  • 30living languages
  • 7language families
  • 20.3 millionpeople (CLDR estimate)
  • 5with a CLDR share

Tap the map to list every language whose area covers a spot in Kazakhstan. Areas are generalisations from published atlases and overlap, and a language that is mapped here is not necessarily spoken everywhere inside its area.

Languages spoken in Kazakhstan

Languages with a Unicode CLDR share come first, biggest first by estimated speakers; the rest follow A to Z. Estimated speakers are the share applied to CLDR’s own population figure for the country.

LanguageFamilyShare of populationEstimated speakersStatus
RussianIndo-European72%14,587,200Not endangered
KazakhTurkic64%12,966,400Not endangered
EnglishIndo-European15%3,039,000Not endangered
GermanIndo-European6.4%1,296,640Not endangered
UighurTurkic2%405,200Not endangered
BashkirTurkicThreatened
BonanMongolic-KhitanShifting
ChechenNakh-DaghestanianThreatened
ChuvashTurkicThreatened
DagurMongolic-KhitanShifting
DunganSino-TibetanThreatened
Eastern MariUralicThreatened
ErzyaUralicShifting
Ili TurkiTurkicNearly extinct
Kara-KalpakTurkicNot endangered
Karachay-BalkarTurkicThreatened
KirghizTurkicNot endangered
KumykTurkicThreatened
LakNakh-DaghestanianThreatened
LezgianNakh-DaghestanianThreatened
NogaiTurkicShifting
North-Central DargwaNakh-DaghestanianThreatened
Northern UzbekTurkicNot endangered
Oirad-Kalmyk-DarkhatMongolic-KhitanThreatened
Sinte-Manus RomaniIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
Southern AltaiTurkicShifting
TabasaranNakh-DaghestanianThreatened
TatarTurkicNot endangered
UdmurtUralicShifting
XibeTungusicThreatened

Read more: where is Russian spoken?

Language families in Kazakhstan

About these numbers

The list of languages in Kazakhstan comes from the overlap of Glottography and Glottolog language areas and positions with the country outline, together with the languages Glottolog assigns to the country. The shares come from Unicode CLDR release 48 and are estimates. See every source and licence.

Questions about languages in Kazakhstan

How many languages are spoken in Kazakhstan?

30 living languages are mapped in Kazakhstan, from 7 families. The number depends on how a catalogue decides where one language ends and another begins, so other sources give other totals.

What is the most spoken language in Kazakhstan?

By Unicode CLDR's estimate, Russian is spoken by 72% of the population, about 14,587,200 people, followed by Kazakh (64%). Shares are approximate, can add up to more than 100% because many people speak several languages, and only cover languages CLDR has a figure for.

Which language families are found in Kazakhstan?

Turkic (13 languages), Nakh-Daghestanian (5 languages), Indo-European (4 languages), Mongolic-Khitan (3 languages) and Uralic (3 languages), and 2 more.

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