Kazakhstan's largest cities have once again made the top 300 of the world's major urban centers, but both fell in the global ranking over the past year. In the Global Cities Index 2026, compiled by Oxford Economics, Almaty ranked 265th and Astana 281st, according to infohub.kz.
A year earlier, in the 2025 ranking, Almaty stood at 258th and Astana at 276th. Thus, over the past year, the southern capital dropped seven places and the northern capital five. Despite this, both cities retained their status as leaders among Central Asian cities.
Kazakhstan's major cities showed their strongest results in human capital. In this category, Almaty ranked 66th and Astana 98th. Both cities managed to outpace Ankara, Warsaw, Prague, Tallinn, and Moscow.
It is worth noting that a year earlier Almaty was 64th in human capital. This category takes into account the quality and scale of a city's talent pool, education levels, professional skills, labor market conditions, and the ability to attract and retain qualified specialists.
In economic indicators, Astana ranked 264th, while Almaty placed 288th.
The Global Cities Index covers the world's 1,000 largest cities. Oxford Economics evaluates them across five key dimensions: economics, human capital, quality of life, environment, and governance.
The ranking considers economic indicators, education and the labor market, household incomes, housing costs, safety, environmental conditions, and the quality of institutions and regulation. New York, London, and Paris retained the top three spots in 2026.