Almaty ( ; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata and Verny , is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of 1,552,349 people, consisting the 9% of the country's total population. Almaty is considered a World City with a Beta classification according]to GaWC. It served as capital of the Kazakh state in its various forms from 1929 to 1997, under influence of the former Soviet Union and its appointees. Alma-Ata was the host city for a 1978 international conference on Primary Health Care where the Alma Ata Declaration was adopted, marking a paradigm shift in global public health. In 1997 the government relocated the capital to Astana in the north of the nation.