The depth of poverty in Kazakhstan is prevalent in Mangystau and Turkistan regions

The average poor person from Mangystau in the West and Turkestan region in East Kazakhstan lives below a poverty line and the furthest away from the poverty line compared to other Kazakhstani areas.

Data from the Statistics Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan exhibits the highest poverty depth coefficient of 1.4 in Mangystau and Turkistan regions in 2019 and the least in Atyrau region, cities such as Nur-Sultan and Shymkent in South - at 0.2.

The inequality in earnings among the poverty-stricken population is prevalent in Mangystau, where poverty acuteness coefficient equals 0.5, in regions such as Turkistan, Eastern Kazakhstan and Akmola - 0.3. The least poverty-acute areas are Atyrau and Shymkent at 0, followed by the capital city Nur-Sultan, and Aktobe, Almaty, West Kazakhstan, Zhambyl and Pavlodar regions - at 0.1.

The share of the population earning less than the living wage in 2019 is similarly prevalent in the region worst affected by poverty - Turkistan, where 10.8% of the population receive less than the living wage, followed by East Kazakhstan at the rate of 6.2%. Nur-Sultan, the capital of Kazakhstan, has the least share of the population who earn below the living wage, specifically 1.1%.

According to the economic reviewer and the editor of media company Ekonomist.kz, Sergey Domnin, the areas such as Mangystau and Turkistan are the worst affected by poverty because of its demographics. In his words, the average income in those regions is quite distinct, for example, 45% higher in Mangystau and 27% smaller in Turkistan.

“...The matter is in the number of children: in the Mangystau region, the proportion of population younger than 15 years equals to 37%, while in Turkistan - 40% in comparison with the average in the country, 30%, ” he continues.

“If to compare the share of the population younger than 15 years, in Nur-Sultan there is 31%, Akmola region - 25%, in Almaty and East Kazakhstan region - 24%. The rule - the higher the number of children in a family, the lesser the life quality of households is true for all the countries in the world and Kazakhstan is no exception.”

The share of the population receiving less than the living wage in Kazakhstan in 2019 is 4.3%. The living wage for the second quarter of 2020 is 32,560 tenge.

The protests of multiple-children mothers demanding the social nets and help with a house from the government often happen in Kazakhstan, with the most recent one on this Wednesday.