Kazakhs
Қазақтар Qazaqtar قازاقتار | |
|---|---|
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Kazakhstan | 14,456,709 (2025) |
| China | 1,562,518 (2020) |
| Uzbekistan | 821,172 (2021) |
| Russia | 591,970 (2021) |
| Mongolia | 120,999 (2020) |
| Kyrgyzstan | 28,244 (2022) |
| United States | 21,913 (2022) |
| Turkmenistan | 11,825 (2022) |
| Iran | 10,000 (2024) |
| Turkey | 10,000 (2009) |
| Canada | 5,455 (2021) |
| Czech Republic | 5,639 (2017) |
| Ukraine | 5,526 (2001) |
| United Kingdom | 5,432 (2011) |
| United Arab Emirates | 5,000 (2015) |
| Portugal | 3,000 (2017) |
| Australia | 2,430 (2023) |
| Italy | 1,924 (2022) |
| Austria | 1,685 |
| Belarus | 1,355 (2009) |
| Germany | 1,000 (2016) |
| Brazil | 732 (2024) |
| Afghanistan | 200 (2021) |
| Philippines | 178–215 (2022) |
| Languages | |
| Kazakh | |
| Religion | |
| Predominantly Islam, minorities practicing Tibetan Buddhism, Tengrism and Shamanism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Other Turkic peoples (particularly Karakalpaks, Nogais and Kyrgyz) | |
The Kazakhs (Kazakh: қазақтар, qazaqtar, قازاقتار, [qazaq'tar] ⓘ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia and Eastern Europe. They share a common culture, language and history that is closely related to those of other Turkic peoples of Western and Central Asia. The majority of ethnic Kazakhs live in their transcontinental nation state of Kazakhstan.
Ethnic Kazakh communities are present in Kazakhstan's border regions in Russia, northern Uzbekistan, northwestern China (Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture), western Mongolia (Bayan-Ölgii Province) and Iran (Golestan province). The Kazakhs arose from the merging of various medieval tribes of Turkic and Mongolic origin in the 15th century.
Kazakh identity was shaped following the foundation of the Kazakh Khanate between 1456 and 1465, when following the disintegration of the Turkified state of Golden Horde, several tribes under the rule of the sultans Janibek and Kerei departed from the Khanate of Abu'l-Khayr Khan in hopes of forming a powerful khanate of their own.
The term Kazakh is used to refer to ethnic Kazakhs, while the term Kazakhstani refers to all citizens of Kazakhstan, regardless of ethnicity.