Language Research

6. Language in everyday life: The use of language in everyday life, e.g. education, broadcasting, and other

Kazakhs constitute 46% of the population in Kazakhstan, Russians 34% and other nationalities about 20%. Russian remains the prevailing language of instruction (e.g. in 1991, Kazakh was the language of instruction for only 17.6% of the students at institutions of higher education and 34.4% of the students at general secondary schools). Russian is a popular working language in official institutions as well as a language of communication. In 1992 only 2% of Russians and 40% of ethnic Kazakhs claimed to be fluent in Kazakh. According to 1994 data from the State Committee on Languages, out of 55,008 State organizations of the Republic, only 16.6% used both Kazakh and Russian languages, while 70.3% used only Russian. Out of the 223 regions of the Republic, 131 operate in the Russian language only.