{
  "schema_version": 2,
  "title": "Kazakhstan city population: Almaty, Astana and Shymkent",
  "canonical_url": "https://about-kazakhstan.com/kazakhstan-cities-population-2026-data/",
  "reference_date": "2026-08-01",
  "baseline_date": "2026-01-01",
  "source_published_on": "2026-09-01",
  "verified_on": "2026-09-05",
  "source_url": "https://stat.gov.kz/api/iblock/element/513294/file/ru/",
  "source_title_ru": "Численность населения Республики Казахстан на 1 августа 2026 года",
  "source_locator": "Table 1, Все население; rows Республика Казахстан, г. Алматы, г. Астана, г. Шымкент",
  "cross_check_url": "https://stat.gov.kz/ru/region/",
  "geography_type": "city_of_republican_significance",
  "coverage": "Three city administrations, ordered by population within this selection. This is not an inventory of all Kazakhstan cities or a metropolitan-area dataset.",
  "unit": "persons",
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "license_note": "Applies to the About Kazakhstan compilation and chart; retain attribution to the original BNS source.",
  "revision_note": "Schema v2 replaces the earlier unverified top-30 compilation. Prior-year, founding-year, coordinates and unsupported national-rank fields were retired. Baseline and current counts now come from the same dated BNS release; growth is January to August 2026, not year-on-year.",
  "formulas": {
    "growth_people": "population - baseline_population",
    "growth_pct": "(population / baseline_population - 1) * 100; rounded to two decimal places",
    "national_share_pct": "population / national.population * 100; rounded to one decimal place",
    "combined_share_pct": "sum(cities.population) / national.population * 100; rounded to one decimal place"
  },
  "definitions": {
    "population": "BNS current-accounting population estimate on reference_date; not a new census count.",
    "baseline_population": "Beginning-of-2026 population as reported in the same September 1 BNS release.",
    "natural_increase": "Registered births minus deaths during the calculation period.",
    "net_migration": "Registered permanent arrivals minus departures during the calculation period; a balance, not gross arrivals or a causal explanation.",
    "growth_pct": "Growth between January 1 and August 1, 2026; not an annualized or year-on-year rate."
  },
  "national": {
    "population": 20604819,
    "baseline_population": 20499822,
    "natural_increase": 99419,
    "net_migration": 5578
  },
  "cities": [
    {
      "id": "almaty",
      "city": "Almaty",
      "city_ru": "г. Алматы",
      "population": 2379793,
      "baseline_population": 2348103,
      "natural_increase": 10286,
      "net_migration": 21404
    },
    {
      "id": "astana",
      "city": "Astana",
      "city_ru": "г. Астана",
      "population": 1690605,
      "baseline_population": 1639176,
      "natural_increase": 11879,
      "net_migration": 39550
    },
    {
      "id": "shymkent",
      "city": "Shymkent",
      "city_ru": "г. Шымкент",
      "population": 1313348,
      "baseline_population": 1294050,
      "natural_increase": 11739,
      "net_migration": 7559
    }
  ]
}