Kartaly is a town and the administrative center of the Kartalinsky District in the Chelyabinsk Oblast region of Russia. It is situated in the valley of the Kartaly-Ayat River, approximately 260 kilometers (160 miles) southwest of Chelyabinsk, which serves as the administrative center of the oblast.
According to census data, the population of the town has fluctuated over recent decades. The 2010 census recorded a population of 29,131, following a figure of 29,908 in 2002 and 37,132 during the 1989 Soviet census.