By 2050, 2.5 million people should live in Almaty, 2 million in Astana, and 1.5 million people in Shymkent, said President Nursultan Nazarbayev, at a meeting on further development of the city of Astana.
"Throughout the world, urbanization is becoming very important: by the year 2050, 70% of the world's population will live in cities, because there is economic development, there are more salaries, life is better there, in Kazakhstan, as we know, 53%. In Indonesia the level of urbanization has grown by 15% over 10 years, Astana has not grown so much, that is, Kazakhstan has not grown. The best practice of high density of use in Almaty and Astana, our largest cities," said the President.