Kazakh is the official language of the Republic of Kazakhstan. There are some 8 million speakers of Kazakh, 6.5 million of which live in Kazakhstan; 98 percent
of them speak it as a first language. There are also 1 million speakers living in China and another 100,000 in Mongolia. Kazakh is one of the most widely used Turkic languages in central Asia. About 40 percent of Kazakhstan's population of 17 million are Kazakhs, another 38 percent are of Russian ethnicity, while the rest are Slavic or German. There has been some confusion over the proper terminology to use when referring to Kazakh and its relative Kyrgyz. Kazakh is at times referred to as Kazakh-Kirghiz, Kirghiz-Kaisak, or Kirghiz. However, Kyrgyz and Kazakh are currently the standard terms for the both people and languages of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, respectively. Although most primary and secondary instruction takes place in the Russian language, higher education is dominated by the Kazakh language since it is common for ethnic Russians to leave the Republic to pursue higher education.