Major cities like Almaty and Nur-Sultan are the main points of attraction of internal migrants. In 2018, Shymkent ranked the first in terms of net internal migration attracting 34,094 people from other regions and accounting 37.3% of the total number of internal migrants of the country. All southern regions and well as extreme northern and extreme eastern parts of the region demonstrate the highest levels of net internal emigration. Wealth of the regions is one of the primary factors that explain internal migration patterns in Kazakhstan.