Latest trends in the Astana agglomeration development

The purpose of the article is to describe the current stage of the Astana agglomeration development, including gradients between the agglomeration center and its surroundings, based on official statistics and the results of 2015 and 2024 sociological surveys. Despite the increasing development coefficients the capital agglomeration is still coming up mainly due to the rapidly growing capital city itself with a rather slow development of the suburban area. The main contributor to the population growth is migration while the natural growth is stable, with higher values found only in the capital and some of the immediate suburbs. The migration attractiveness of the agglomeration is limited to Astana, the satellite town of Kosshy and the nearest Tselinograd district. The territories outside the 30-km accessibility zone are characterized by stable depopulation. So far, the capital does not stimulate rapid economic development of the suburbs, where the agro-industrial complex and services related to the construction industry are developing. Despite the persistently large gap between the capital and the surrounding settlements in the level of income of the population, labor-oriented commuting is still developing rather slowly. According to the results of sociological surveys, there are no significant changes in the access time of Astana from the suburban settlements because of insufficient transport connectivity between the capital and its surroundings. As the survey data show, the low availability of places of employment and services in the suburban zone leads to a slight increase in the intensity of labor-oriented commuting, which retains a center-periphery character. The delivery of multi-apartment housing mainly in the capital itself and in new microdistricts of the town of Kosshy has become a marker dividing Astana from its predominantly rural suburbs. In them, the new housing is mainly delivered by individual developers and concentrates in municipalities directly adjacent to the capital. At the same time, the infrastructure development and municipal improvement of both new and old residential areas leave much to be desired, which was noted by respondents during sociological surveys.