Russia People, Demographics and Population

In comparison with 1989 the population of Russia was reduced on 1840 thousand people or 1.3%. It occured basically due to natural decline in population, and also because of emigration of Russians in the countries of "far abroad".

According to the All-Russia population census of 2002 more than 60% of the population of the country live in Central (26.2%), Volga (21.5%) and Southern (15.8%) federal okrugs (districts). 13.8%, 9.6% and 8.5% of inhabitants of the country fall into share of the Siberian, Northwest and Ural federal okrugs accordingly. The smallest is the Far East federal okrug - 4.6%.

During 1989-2002 the population has grown only in Southern and Central federal okrugs, on 11.6% and 0.2% accordingly. Thus if in Southern federal okrug the population has increased in all regions, except for Republic Kalmykia, in the Central federal okrug the population has grown only due to Moscow and the Belgorod area. The factor of increase in a population in these okrugs was the significant migratory inflow of the population which compensated a natural loss. In other federal okrugs census has fixed reduction of a population: in Ural federal okrug - on 1.2%, Volga - on 2.0%, Siberian - on 4.8%, Northwest - 8.2% and Far East - 15.9%. Reduction of number of inhabitants in Northwest and Siberian federal okrugs has been caused by a natural loss and emigration of the population, in Volga and Ural okrugs - excess of the natural loss over immigration, in Far East - excess of emigration over a natural increase.

The urban population makes 73.3% from the total number of inhabitants of Russia. In total 13 cities with a population more than one million inhabitants are totaled: Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Nizhni Novgorod, Ekaterinburg, Samara, Omsk, Kazan, Chelyabinsk, Rostov-on-Don, Ufa, Volgograd, Perm. 20 cities total from 500 thousand up to 1 million inhabitants.

The national structure of the population of Russia is very various. There live more than 100 nations and nationalities. The majority of the population - Russians (more than 80%). From numerous nationalities it is necessary to note: Tatars (more then 6.5 million people), Ukrainians (more then 4 million people), Chuvashs (more then 1.5 million people), Bashkirs (1300 thousand people), Byelorussians, etc.

Population
With a total population (1996 estimate) of about 148,178,487, Russia ranks sixth in the world in population, after China, India, the United States, Indonesia, and Brazil. From 1990 to 1995 Russia's population grew at a rate of only about 0.2 percent per year. The country is inhabited by one of the widest varieties of nationalities and ethnic groups in the world, and many of the country's national groups have their own administrative territories.

Population Characteristics
The overall population density of Russia is about 9 persons per sq km (about 22 per sq mi). The population, however, is unevenly distributed across the country. The population density of a particular area generally reflects the land's agricultural potential, with localized population centers occurring at mining and industrial centers. Most of the country's people are concentrated in the so-called fertile triangle, which has its base along the western border between the Baltic and Black seas and tapers eastward across the southern Urals into southwestern Siberia. Although the majority of the population remains concentrated in European Russia, the country experienced substantial eastward migration after World War II (1939-1945), especially to southern Siberia and the far eastern region of Russia. Such migration was strongly encouraged by the Soviet government.

Throughout much of rural European Russia the population density averages about 25 people per sq km (65 per sq mi). The country's heaviest population densities are in sprawling urbanized areas such as Moscow Oblast. On the other hand, more than one-third of the country's territory has fewer than 1 person per sq km (about 3 per sq mi). This includes part of northern European Russia and huge areas of Siberia.

More than 100 nationalities inhabit Russia, making it one of the most multinational countries in the world. Russians are the predominant nationality. As of 1991 the non-Russian population constituted only 18 percent of the total, with the largest minority, the Tatars, comprising only 3.8 percent. Ukrainians (3 percent) and Chuvash (1.2 percent) are the only other minorities constituting more than 1 percent of the population. Other minorities include Belarusians, Germans, Bashkirs, and Jews (considered a nationality in Russia). The country contains 32 ethnic divisions that are scattered throughout its territory. (See the Government section of this article.)

Principal Cities 
Approximately three-fourths of Russia's population lives in urban areas. Russia became a country of large cities despite government restrictions during the Soviet period designed to limit the populations of major urban centers. Thirteen cities have more than 1 million inhabitants, most of these in European Russia. The largest city by far is Moscow, the capital. Saint Petersburg served as the national capital from 1712 to 1918; it is a leading port and a primary industrial center situated on the Gulf of Finland. Other major cities include Novosibirsk, the largest city in Siberia; Nizhniy Novgorod, the largest city on the Volga River and a major automotive and shipbuilding center; Yekaterinburg, the largest city in the Urals; and Samara, a commercial center of the middle Volga region and the primary refining center for the Volga-Urals oil fields.

Other large cities include Omsk, in western Siberia's chief petrochemical center; Chelyabinsk, in the Ural Mountains; Kazan', capital of the republic of Tatarstan, located along the middle course of the Volga River; Perm', a major industrial center in the Kama River region to the west of the Urals; Ufa, an important petrochemical center in the southern Urals; Rostov-na-Donu, a commercial, industrial, and transportation center in southern European Russia on the lower stretch of the Don River; and Volgograd, a center of machinery production and other industrial activity, on the lower course of the Volga River.