Such data became known from a thematic collection dedicated to the analysis of the national composition, religious affiliations and language proficiency of the population of the Republic of Kazakhstan, published by the National Bureau of Statistics based on the results of the 2021 Population Census, El.kz reports.
According to the 2021 census, 44.9% of the population over the age of 5 is bilingual, and another 28.6% of the population is trilingual.
1.7 per cent of the population speaks four languages and 0.2 per cent speak five languages. The proportion of polyglots who speak six languages was 0.1%, which equates to 8,845 people.
The interesting fact is that the proportion of women who speak 4-5 languages is higher than that of men at 52.1 per cent, while the proportion of men who speak 6 or more languages is higher than that of women at 55.6 per cent.
The city of Almaty can be considered a city of polyglots. Among all regions, the largest number of polyglots who speak 5 or more languages lives in the city of Almaty.
It should be noted that 35.1% or 6,042.1 thousand people know English, and among them, 27.6% are fluent in this language. The proportion of English speakers is highest among people aged 10-14 and 25-29.