These results come at a time when expanding the middle class has become a central element of Kazakhstan’s economic agenda, moving beyond a narrow focus on household income alone. In his 2024 State of the Nation Address, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev stated that “economic growth should be accompanied by reduced social inequality and a strengthened middle class. In the earlier survey (2023), 74.2% of respondents identified as middle income, compared with 70.1% in the most recent 2024 results. This means that a stable or even improving economy can still produce shifts in self-assessment that do not directly mirror income growth statistics. Whether this reflects real income growth, inflation-adjusted improvements, or changing social benchmarks remains open to interpretation.