ASTANA, February 25 (RIA Novosti) - Kazakhstan has launched its second nationwide population census since the Central Asian country gained independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

Some 6 million tenges (around $200,000) has been allocated from the country's budget to fund the research, which will be carried out across the country up until March 6.

The survey will involve some 53,000 census takers and around 45 questions, including details of the ages, nationalities, education, religious beliefs, and income levels of respondents.

Kazakhstan carries out a census every ten years and according to the 1999 results, the country's population stood at 14.953 million which was a 7.7% decrease against the 1989 figure of 16.199 million people.