Demographic and Health Survey 1995

The 1995 KDHS employed a nationally representative probability sample of women age 15-49. The country was divided into five survey regions. Four survey regions consisted of groups of contiguous oblasts (except the East Kazakstanskaya oblast which is not contiguous). Almaty City constituted a survey region by itself although it is part of the Almatinskaya oblast. The five survey regions were defined as follows:

I) Almaty City
2) South Region: Taldy-Korganskaya, Almatinskaya (except Almaty city), Dzhambylskaya, South Kazakstanskaya, and Kzyl-Ordinskaya
3) West Region: Aktiubinskaya, Mangistauskaya, Atyrauskaya, and West Kazakstanskaya
4) Central Region: Semipalatinskaya, Zhezkazganskaya, and Tourgaiskaya
5) North and East Region: East Kazakstanskaya, Pavlodarskaya, Karagandinskaya, Akmolinskaya, Kokchetauskaya, North Kazakstanskaya, and Koustanaiskaya

It is important to note that the oblast composition of regions outside of Almaty City was determined on the basis of geographic proximity, and in order to achieve similarity with respect to reproductive practices within regions. The South and West Regions are comprised of oblasts which traditionally have a high proportion of Kazak population and high fertility levels. The Central Region contains three oblasts in which the fertility level is similar to the national average. The North and East Region contains seven oblasts situated in northern Kazakstan in which a relatively high proportion of the population is of Russian origin, and the fertility level is lower than the national average.

In Almaty City, the sample for the 1995 KDHS was selected in two stages. In the first stage, 40 census counting blocks were selected with equal probability from the 1989 list of census counting blocks. A complete listing of the households in the selected counting blocks was carried out. The lists of households served as the frame for second-stage sampling; i.e., the selection of the households to be visited by the KDHS interviewing teams. In each selected household, women age 15-49 were eligible to be interviewed.

In the rural areas, the primary sampling units (PSUs) were the raions which were selected with probability proportional to size, the size being the 1993 population published by Goskomstat (1993). At the second stage, one village was selected in each selected raion, from the 1989 Registry of Villages. This resulted in 50 rural clusters being selected. At the third stage, households were selected in each cluster following the household listing operation as in Almaty City.

In the urban areas other than Almaty City, the PSUs were the cities and towns themselves. In the second stage, one health block was selected from each town except in self-representing cities (large cities that were selected with certainty) where more than one health block was selected. The selected health blocks were segmented prior to the household listing operation which provided the household lists for the third stage selection of households. In total, 86 health blocks were selected.

On average, 22 households were selected in each urban cluster, and 33 households were selected in each rural cluster. It was expected that the sample would yield interviews with approximately 4,000 women between the ages of 15 and 49.

Note: See detailed description of sample design in APPENDIX B of the survey report.