Statistics

After the last batch of pictures I put up, someone noted that my sisters and students don't look like they're all that poor. I am definitely not living in an African dirt hut. Kazakhstan was a part of the Soviet Union. Besides being totalitarian and inefficient, there were some things that the Soviet system did very well. Education was one of these, especially in technical fields. The current system has decayed a bit, but people who graduated under the Soviet system got a very good education. Also, Kazakhstan is a huge producer of wheat, minerals, and natural gas. The prices for all of those have been sky high recently, so a lot of money is (or was) flowing through the economy. Here are some international development statistics that might give you a better idea of where Kazakhstan stands compared to other countries.

Gross Domestic Product (PPP) Per Capita:

This is the dollar value of everything the country produces, divided by its population. Keep in mind that this does not tell you about inequality; oil and gas producing countries (like Kazakhstan) score very well on this measure while still having many poor people.

(These are IMF statistics from 2007, there are 179 countries in the list, and these numbers are adjusted for purchasing power parity, which tries to eliminate differences due to exchange rates)

#1 Qatar: $85,000 (oil and gas, doesn't mean everyone there is rich)

#6 United States: $45,700

#69 Kazakhstan: $10,830

#179 Zimbabwe: $188

To give you an idea, the ten countries ahead of Kazakhstan on the list include Turkey, Venezuela, Bulgaria, and Lebanon. The ten countries behind Kazakhstan include Iran, Costa Rica, Serbia, South Africa, and Brazil. Also, remember that in most of the middle income countries, wealth is concentrated in the big cities. For example, China is #100 ($5,300), but that would be hard to believe if you only hung out in Shanghai.


The UN uses a measure called a Human Development Indicator, which looks past the dollar values. It's a combination of GDP per capita, life expectancy, education levels, etc.

In HDI, Kazakhstan scores about the same, #71 in the world.


Hopefully that gives you an idea of where Kazakhstan is in the grand scheme of things. Also, don't worry about me being cold, cross fingers. This has been a really warm winter, there's barely any snow around. It's colder on the east coast in the U.S. than it is here.