Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan: strong, sustained growth, 1990–2025

Central Asia's largest economy leveraged vast oil, gas, and mineral wealth after independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, though growth has remained closely tied to commodity-price cycles and Russian economic ties. Between 1990 and 2025, Kazakhstan's GDP per capita grew from $1,570 to $14,692 (current US$), a compound annual growth rate of 6.6% — strong, sustained growth. Annual GDP growth averaged 3.1% with a year-to-year standard deviation of 6.2 points, reflecting considerable volatility and periodic crises. Structurally, agriculture's share of the economy moved from 23.3% to 3.7% of GDP (a classic decline as the economy industrialized/modernized), while services rose from 25.1% to 57.7% of GDP, underscoring a shift toward a services-driven economy. On human development, life expectancy rose from 62.5 to 74.5 years, while tertiary school enrollment moved from 32.9% to 52.9%, while the urban population share grew from 54.1% to 62.4%.

What this growth cost: Growth was not without cost: per-capita CO2 emissions fell from 17.39 to 12.57 tonnes CO2e per person; income inequality (Gini index) narrowed from 32.7 to 29.2; the poverty headcount ratio fell from 14.6% to 0.0%.