As of April 1, 2026, Kazakhstan had 2,068,980 active small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The total includes 1,446,960 sole proprietors, 376,151 small businesses incorporated as legal entities, 242,775 farms, and 3,094 medium-sized companies. The sector employed 3,919,543 people, while SME output reached KZT 19.48 trillion in January-March 2026.
Compared with the same period a year earlier, the number of active SMEs stood at 98.5% of the previous year’s level, employment at 90.7%, and output at 93.4%. Below is the regional picture across all three indicators.
Only two regions recorded year-on-year growth in the number of active SMEs: Astana (103.8% of last year’s level) and Almaty (100.8%). The remaining eighteen regions posted declines. The closest to last year’s level were Zhambyl Region (99.9%) and Zhetisu Region (99.7%), while the sharpest drops were recorded in Ulytau Region (92.0%) and East Kazakhstan Region (92.3%).
Employment declined across all twenty regions without exception. The smallest declines were in Karaganda Region(97.3%) and Zhambyl Region (97.0%), while the steepest were in Almaty (85.9%) and Aktobe Region (88.1%).
The picture for SME output was more mixed. Eight regions posted year-on-year growth: Zhambyl Region (117.4%), Turkistan Region (116.6%), Karaganda Region (112.4%), Abai Region (111.4%), Ulytau Region (107.0%), Astana(106.1%), Akmola Region (103.1%), and East Kazakhstan Region (102.6%). Atyrau Region remained broadly unchanged at 102.0% of last year’s level. The remaining eleven regions recorded declines, with the sharpest contractions in Zhetisu Region (76.5%) and Almaty (78.1%), the country’s largest SME hub with KZT 5.1 trillion in quarterly output.
Three derived indicators – output per SME, output per employee, and employees per SME – offer a clearer picture of how regional business structures differed in the first quarter of 2026.
Output per SME, top five: Atyrau Region – KZT 23.8 million per enterprise, Astana – KZT 14.1 million, Almaty – KZT 13.4 million, West Kazakhstan Region – KZT 11.6 million, Karaganda Region – KZT 11.2 million. Bottom five: Abai Region – KZT 5.7 million, Ulytau Region – KZT 5.2 million, Kyzylorda Region – KZT 4.4 million, Zhambyl Region – KZT 4.0 million, Turkistan Region – KZT 3.6 million.
Output per SME employee, top five: Atyrau Region – KZT 11.5 million per employee, Astana – KZT 7.9 million, Almaty – KZT 6.2 million, West Kazakhstan Region – KZT 5.6 million, Karaganda Region – KZT 4.8 million. Bottom five: Pavlodar Region – KZT 3.3 million, North Kazakhstan Region – KZT 3.2 million, Zhambyl Region – KZT 2.7 million, Turkistan Region – KZT 2.7 million, Zhetisu Region – KZT 2.4 million.
Employees per SME, top five: North Kazakhstan Region – 2.9 employees per enterprise, East Kazakhstan Region – 2.4, Karaganda Region – 2.3, Kostanay Region – 2.3, Pavlodar Region – 2.3. Bottom five: Kyzylorda Region – 1.7, Ulytau Region – 1.7, Zhetisu Region – 1.6, Shymkent – 1.6, Zhambyl Region – 1.5, and Turkistan Region – 1.4. The last figure reflects the region’s business structure: of its 205,622 SMEs, 80,657 are farms, more than in any other region of Kazakhstan.
Taken together, these indicators reveal distinctly different regional business models. Atyrau Region, Astana and Almaty are dominated by larger, higher-productivity businesses with stronger turnover. Turkistan and Zhambyl Regions are characterized by a large number of small sole proprietorships and farms. Meanwhile, North Kazakhstan and Karaganda Regions stand out for having the country’s largest average business size in terms of employment.
Lina Yegil kizi, expert of the EconomyKZ.org portal
