West Kazakhstan

West Kazakhstan Province (Kazakh: , Bats Qazaqstan obls) is a province of Kazakhstan. Its capital is Oral (also known as Uralsk and Ural'sk), a city of about 200,000 inhabitants. The province borders Russia and is near the Ural Mountains. The Ural River flows from Russia to the Caspian Sea through the province. West Kazakhstan has the distinction of being in Eastern Europe. It also borders the provinces of Atyrau (to the south) and Aktobe (to the east). It is traversed by the northeasterly line of equal latitude and longitude. Despite its border with Russia, West Kazakhstan has a Kazakh majority. 69.8% of the population is ethnic Kazakh, while only 27.4% is ethnic Russian. The number of Ukrainians, Poles and Germans are very low due to the geography.