Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana lags behind Almaty, the country’s largest city in terms of key development aspects, Energyprom.kz reports with reference to the Oxford Economics Global Cities Index 2025. Astana is on the 276th position among a thousand cities in the ranking, and Almaty ranks 258th. Astana is behind Almaty in such categories as the quality of life and human capital. In the economic development and environmental conditions, the capital is above Almaty. In general, both cities are classified by the ranking as regional leaders, developing better than other cities in the country, but lower than the largest cities in the world.
The fact that Astana cannot outpace Almaty in most socio-economic indicators is confirmed by domestic statistics. Almaty is the leader in terms of gross regional product in Kazakhstan, according to the Bureau of National Statistics. Almaty’s share in the country’s GDP last year was 21.8% or 29.2 trillion tenge in monetary terms, compared to Astana’s 15.5 trillion tenge.
The capital is one of the most popular cities in the country for internal migration. Kazakhstanis move to Astana in search of a better life, higher-paying jobs, and better career prospects. However, this makes the capital vulnerable in terms of infrastructural and socio-economic development.
As for the salaries for which internal migrants go to the capital, they are indeed higher than the national average — 538 thousand tenge a month. In oil-producing regions of Atyrau and Mangistau, people earn more: 633.3 thousand and 580.9 thousand tenge, respectively. The highest salaries in Astana are paid to employees in the financial and insurance spheres (1.2 million tenge), followed by employees of mining companies (981.3 thousand tenge) and workers in the information and communication sector (824.6 thousand tenge).
The rapid growth of Astana’s population is pushing such economic sectors as construction, real estate transactions, and the domestic market for goods and services. Stable demand makes the capital the city with the most expensive housing. Last year, the price of a square meter in newly-built apartment buildings reached 595.5 thousand tenge, compared to 649.8 thousand tenge on the secondary housing market.
With higher salaries than in other regions of Kazakhstan, Astana residents spend much on food. In the first quarter of this year, the share of food expenses amounted to 52% of the total consumer expenses of Astana residents. For comparison, in the Mangistau region, the share of food expenses was 64% of all consumer expenses, in the Zhambyl region 61%, and in the Turkestan region 60.6%.
Indeed, the capital of Kazakhstan is one of the most attractive cities in the country, but there are still many unresolved problems in the city, as well as factors that negatively affect the quality of life of Astana’s residents.
