Regions of Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is divided into 17 regions and 4 cities. The regions are further subdivided into districts. The four cities, Almaty, Baikonur, Shymkent, and the capital city Astana, do not belong to their surrounding regions.
Initially there were 14 regions. On 16 March 2022, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced that three new regions would be created. Abai Region was created from East Kazakhstan Region with its capital in Semey. Ulytau Region was created from Karaganda Region with its capital in Jezkazgan. Jetisu Region was created from Almaty Region with its capital in Taldykorgan; Almaty Region's capital was moved from Taldykorgan to Qonayev.

Demographic statistics

In 2022, three new regions were created - Abai, Jetisu and Ulytau. In the following table, the 2009 population totals have been amended to reflect the population in the new or altered regions.

Entity	Capital	Area	Population	Population	Density	ISO 3166-2
Abai Region	Semey	185,500	654,423	610,183	3.29	KZ-
Aqmola Region	Kokshetau	146,219	737,495	786,012	5.38	KZ-AKM
Aqtobe Region	Aqtobe	300,629	757,768	924,845	3.08	KZ-AKT
Almaty	Almaty	682	1,449,696	2,147,113	3,148.26	KZ-ALA
Almaty Region	Qonaev	105,100	1,103,237	1,497,025	14.24	KZ-ALM
Astana	Astana	797	613,006	1,340,782	1,682.29	KZ-AST
Atyrau Region	Atyrau	118,631	510,377	689,674	5.81	KZ-ATY
Baikonur	Baikonur	57	36,175	34,544	606.04	KZ-BAY*
East Kazakhstan Region	Oskemen	97,700	742,170	730,818	7.48	KZ-VOS
Jambyl Region	Taraz	144,264	1,022,129	1,215,482	8.43	KZ-ZHA
Jetisu Region	Taldyqorgan	118,500	620,593	698,952	5.90	KZ-
Karaganda Region	Karaganda	239,100	1,118,036	1,134,146	4.74	KZ-KAR
Kostanay Region	Kostanay	196,001	885,570	832,445	4.25	KZ-KUS
Kyzylorda Region	Kyzylorda	226,019	678,794	830,901	3.68	KZ-KZY
Mangystau Region	Aktau	165,642	485,392	761,401	4.60	KZ-MAN
North Kazakhstan Region	Petropavl	97,993	596,535	534,966	5.46	KZ-SEV
Pavlodar Region	Pavlodar	124,800	742,475	754,829	6.05	KZ-PAV
Shymkent	Shymkent	1,163	730,873	1,184,113	1,018.15	KZ-
Turkistan Region	Turkistan	116,100	1,738,484	2,110,502	18.18	KZ-TUR
West Kazakhstan Region	Oral	151,339	598,880	686,655	4.54	KZ-ZAP
Ulytau Region	Jezqazgan	188,900	223,664	221,014	1.17	KZ-

Former administrative boundaries

Over the last 60 years, both the distribution and names of regions of Kazakhstan have changed considerably. Major changes were several fusions and splits between Guryev and Mangystau, Karaganda and Dzhezkazgan, Almaty and Taldy-Kurgan, East Kazakhstan and Semipalatinsk and Kostanay, Turgay and Tselinograd, respectively. Changes in region names were often in line with the renaming of cities, such as in the case of Alma-Ata/Almaty. After the administrative reform in 1997, the last change happened since then took place in 1999, when parts of North Kazakhstan that originally belonged to Kokshetau region became part of Akmola. The 1990s merges were in order to dilute the Russian population in the resulting region and to avoid having regions where Russians form a majority.