KZBlog

The 2009 Census ended in Kazakhstan a few weeks ago. So far not a lot of news is out there on the results but the population did grow by 9% in the past 10 years to 16,304,840 people.

I had the privilege of taking the census here in Astana and I must say that the census taker was very professional. They asked a number of questions about social status, income and standard of living. For example, they wanted to know if the apartment had heating, water, hot water, a washing machine, telephone, or Internet. They also asked how long it took us to get to work, which is vital information for improving public transportation. They also asked about race, religion, and level of knowledge of English, Russian, and Kazakh.

However, I was not happy that they took my name and the name of my wife, along with our address. I don’t think the government needs to collect such detailed information about each individual person by name. I certainly hope there isn’t a file somewhere indicating that I live in an apartment with a washing machine and Internet, which would be both intrusive and an incredible waste of government resources. Imagine 16, 304, 840 files with all details of race, address, English level, education level. Imagine the staff that would be required to maintain it and search it for information!

Taking the name of people will also affect their honesty. For example, while the census taker was overall professional, and perhaps she was trying to help me as a non-native speaker, she occasionally prompted me for answers. My wife has a typical Kazakh name, and when the census taker asked me her race, she said, “She’s Kazakh, yes?” Many people who are not Kazakh, or are half-Kazakh, half something else might be tempted to lie, particularly when the census taker puts a bit of pressure on you. Maybe we don’t want neighbors knowing we are Uzbek because there are many negative stereotypes about Uzbeks, for example. When we got to the section on language knowledge, she once again prompted me, “Knowledge of Kazakh. Fluent, right?” Of course I am going to say my wife is fluent in Kazakh, whether she is or not. It is deeply shameful for Kazakhs not to speak their own language. The same routine was repeated when it came to religion. My wife is not religious but when the woman suggested Islam was probably my wife’s religion, I went along. Again, I don’t want to shame her at a time when being Muslim is considered “normal”. So they really have to work on anonymity and not leading people. I would also suggest taking the statistics on sensitive topics with a grain of salt. I doubt I am the only one who lied.

Finally, I was a bit disappointed that the only information they wanted from non-citizens was date of arrival in Kazakhstan, status, and date of leaving. I think they asked for my job, but I could be wrong. I know a few foreign residents of Kazakhstan who, like me, have family here, work here, have been here a long time. We are part of the society, we use public services, we pay taxes. Yet the census reveals that the government treats us as transients. It seems to me that the census should include information on permanent residents in terms of income, job, religion and race. I suspect when you count oralmani, and citizens of the CIS who have family here, the number of resident non-citizens is quite substantial.

So those are my suggestions for making the census better. Any other comments on the process? I’d be curious whether the census takers were as professional everywhere as mine was .