West Kazakhstan Region

Template:Infobox settlement West Kazakhstan Region (Template:Lang-kk) is a region of Kazakhstan. Its capital is Oral (also known as Uralsk and Ural'sk), a city of about 200,000 inhabitants.

Geography

The region borders Russia and is near the Ural Mountains. The Ural River is the border between Asia and Europe and flows from Russia to the Caspian Sea through the region, meaning western West Kazakhstan is in Eastern Europe. It also borders the regions of Atyrau (to the south) and Aktobe (to the east).

It is traversed by the northeasterly line of equal latitude and longitude.

Demographics

West Kazakhstan has an ethnic Kazakh population of 69.8% and a significant Russian minority of 27.4% of the population. The number of Ukrainians, Poles and Germans are very low due to the geography.

Administrative divisions

The region is divided into twelve districts and the city of Oral.<ref name="akimat">Template:Cite web</ref>

Name	Area (km²)	Population	Population dens.	Capital
Akzhaik	45,500	25,200	1,8	Chapaev
Bokey Orda	18,400	19,200	1,0	Saykyn
Borili	55,100	5,600	9,8	Aksay
Kaztal	39,200	18,600	2,1	Kaztal
Karatobe	19,700	10,000	2,0	Karatobe
Zhanakala	23,700	20,800	1,1	Zhanakala
Zhanybek	18,400	8,200	2,2	Zhanybek
Shyngyrlau	19,400	7,200	2,7	Shyngyrlau
Zelenov	53,700	7,400	7,3	Peremyotnoye
Syrym	26,500	11,900	2,2	Zhympity
Taskala	19,100	8,100	2,4	Taskala
Terekti	43,200	8,400	5,1	Fyodorovka

Two localities in the region have town status. These are Oral and Aksay.<ref name="akimat"/>

Sport

The capital Oral is home to Kazakhstan's only professional bandy club, Akzhaiyk. In 2016 the national championship was won by the regional team.<ref>http://www.sports.kz/news/sbornaya-zko-stala-chempionom-kazahstana-po-hokkeyu-s-myachom (in Russian)</ref>