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Inside a census station in Severodvinsk

The Russian Census of 2010 (Russian: Всеросси́йская пе́репись населе́ния 2010 го́да) is the first census of the Russian Federation population since 2002 and the second in its post-Soviet history. Preparations for the census began in 2007 and it took place between October 14 and October 25.^[1]

A 10-ruble coin commemorating the 2010 Census

The census[link]

The census was originally scheduled for October 2010, but was moved to 2013 allegedly for financial reasons,^[2] although it was also speculated that political motives were influential in the decision. However in late 2009 Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced that the Government of Russia allocated 10.5 billion rubles in order to conduct the census as originally scheduled (in October 2010).^[3][4]

In the census, many Russians in Siberia entered “Siberian” as their nationality, which prompted Michael Bohm of The Moscow Times to call for removal of 'nationality' from Russian passports.^[5]

Preliminary results[link]

Preliminary results released in April 2011 showed the population to stand at 142,905,200,^[6] a decline of 2.6% since the 2002 census.

See also[link]

• Russian Census (2002)
• Demographics of Russia

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Russian Census 2010

• Official website of the 2010 Census (Russian)

Demographics of Russia
Population (in millions) 1950 – January 2012.[1]
Population:	143,100,000 (Official Estimate - April 2012)[2]
Growth rate:	0.15% (2011)
Birth rate:	12.6 births/1,000 population (2011)
Death rate:	13.5 deaths/1,000 population (2011)
Life expectancy:	70.3 years (2011)
–male:	64.3 years
–female:	76.1 years
Fertility rate:	1.61 children born/woman (2011)
Infant mortality rate:	7.2 deaths/1,000 live births (2011)
Net migration rate:	2.24 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2011)
Age structure:
0-14 years:	14.9%
15-64 years:	71.8%
65-over:	13.3% (2009)
Sex ratio:
Total:	0.86 male(s)/female (2009)
At birth:	1.05 male(s)/female
Under 15:	1.05 male(s)/female (male 10,806,895/female 10,285,532)
15-64 years:	0.92 male(s)/female (male 48,864,763/female 53,048,315)
65-over:	0.46 male(s)/female (male 5,969,976/female 12,928,498)
Nationality:
Nationality:	noun: Russian(s) adjective: Russian
Major ethnic:	Russians
Language:
Spoken:	Russian, others

The demographics of Russia is about the demographic features of the population of the Russian Federation, including population growth, population density, ethnic composition, education level, health, economic status, and other aspects of the population.

The population of Russia was 143,100,000 as per the official estimate for April 1, 2012.^[3] The population hit a historic peak at 148,689,000 in 1991, just before the breakup of the Soviet Union, but then began a decade-long decline, falling at a rate of about 0.5% per year due to declining birth rates, rising death rates and emigration. However, the decline began to slow considerably in recent years, and in 2009 Russia recorded annual population growth for the first time in 15 years, with growth of 23,300.^[4][5]

In 2011, the population of Russia grew by 160,000 people,^[6] and reached a total of more than 143 million.

In the first 3 months of 2012, the population increased by 31,000 people. ^[7]

According to the 2010 census, ethnic Russians make up 81% of the total population,^[8][9] while six other ethnicities have a population exceeding 1 million – Tatars (3.9%), Ukrainians (1.4%), Bashkir (1.1%), Chuvash (1%), Chechens (1%) and Armenians (0.9%). In total, 160 different ethnic groups and indigenous peoples live within the Russian federation's borders.

It is important to note that in the 2010 Census, almost 6 million people (about 4% of the overall population.) did not declare any ethnic origin, compared to about 1 million in the 2002 Census. This is due to the fact that those people were counted from administrative databases and not directly, and were therefore unable to state their ethnicity.^[8][9][10] Therefore, the percentages mentioned above are taken from the total population that declared their ethnicity, given that the non-declared remainder is thought to have an ethnic composition similar to the declared segment.^[11]

Russia's population density is 8.4 people per square kilometre (22 per square mile), making it one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. The population is most dense in the European part of the country, centering around Moscow and Saint Petersburg. 74% of the population is urban.

Main trends[link]

Natural population growth of Russia since 1950.^[4][12][13]

  Birth rate

  Death rate

  Natural growth rate

Natural population growth rates (per 1,000 population) by region in 2009.

The population of Russia peaked at 148,689,000 in 1991, just before the breakup of the Soviet Union. Low birth rates and abnormally high death rates caused Russia's population to decline at a 0.5% annual rate, or about 750,000 to 800,000 people per year from the mid 1990s to the mid 2000s. The UN warned in 2005 that Russia's then population of about 143 million could fall by a third by 2050 if trends did not improve.^[14][15] However, the Russian state statistics service Rosstat had more optimistic forecasts in 2009, whose Medium variant predicted that Russia's population would only fall to 139 million by 2030^[16] (Low: 127 million; High: 147 million). Furthermore, in 2008 one demographic analyst (correctly) predicted a resumption in population growth by 2010.^[17]

The number of Russians living in poverty has halved since the economic crisis following the disintegration of the Soviet Union, and the improving economy had a positive impact on the country's low birth rate. The birth rate of Russia rose from its lowest point of 8.27 births per 1000 people in 1999 to 12.6 per 1000 in 2010. Likewise, the fertility rate rose from its lowest point of 1.16 in 1999 to 1.54 in 2009. 2007 marked the highest growth in birth rates that the country had seen in 25 years, and 2009 marked the highest total birth rate since 1991.^[18] For comparison, the United States^[19] birth rate in 2009 was 13.8 per 1000 . While the Russian birth rate is comparable to that of other developed countries, its death rate is much higher, especially among working-age males due to a comparatively high rate of fatalities caused by heart disease and other external causes such as accidents. The Russian death rate in 2010 was 14.3 per 1000 citizens. For comparison, the US^[19] death rate in 2009 was 8.4 per 1000 .

The causes for this sharp increase in mortality are widely debated, with some academics citing alcohol abuse as the main culprit,^[20] and others citing the drastic and widely negative changes in lifestyle caused by economic reforms that followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union. According to a 2009 report by The Lancet,^[21] a British medical journal, mass privatization, an element of the economic-reform package nicknamed shock therapy, clearly correlates with higher mortality rates. The report argues that the advocates of the economic reforms ignored the human cost of the policies they were promoting, such as unemployment and human suffering, leading to an early death. These conclusions were criticized by The Economist.^[22] According to the Russian demographic publication Demoscope,^[23] the rising male death rate was a long-term trend from 1960 to 2005. The only significant reversion of the trend was caused by Mikhail Gorbachev's anti-alcohol campaign, but its effect was only temporary. According to the publication, the sharp rise of death rates in the early 1990s was caused by the exhaustion of the effect of the anti-alcohol campaign, while the market reforms were of only secondary importance. The authors also claimed the Lancet's study is flawed because it used 1985 death rate as the base, while that was in fact the very maximum of the effect of the anti-alcohol campaign.^[23]

Government measures to halt the demographic crisis was a key subject of Vladimir Putin's 2006 state of the nation address.^[24] As a result, a national programme was developed with the goal to reverse the trend by 2020. Soon after, a study published in 2007 showed that the rate of population decrease had begun to slow: if the net decrease in January–August 2006 was 408,200 people, it was 196,600 in the same period in 2007. The death rate accounted for 357,000 of these, which is 137,000 less than in 2006. At the same time period in 2007, there were just over 1 million births in Russia (981,600 in 2006), whilst deaths decreased from 1,475,000 to 1,402,300. In all, the number of deaths exceeded the number of births by 1.3 times, down from 1.5 in 2006. Eighteen of the 83 provinces showed a natural growth of population (in 2006: 16). The Russian Ministry of Economic Development expressed hope that by 2020 the population would stabilize at 138–139 million, and by 2025, to increase again to its present day status of 143–145, also raising the life expectancy to 75 years.^[25]

The natural population decline continued to slow through 2008—2010 due to declining death rates and increasing birth rates, and in 2009 the population saw yearly growth for the first time in 15 years.^[4][5] In September 2009, the Ministry of Health and Social Development reported that Russia recorded natural population growth for the first time in 15 years, with 1,000 more births than deaths in August.^[26] In April 2011 the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin pledged to spend the 1.5 trillion rubles (£32.5 billion or $54 billion) on various measures to boost Russia's declining birthrate by 30 per cent in the next four years.^[27]

Population statistics[link]

Population pyramid of Russia as of 1 January 2010. "Waves" are caused by huge losses in the WWII.

Population density[link]

8.4 people per square kilometer (2010 Russian Census)^[28]

Population distribution[link]

74% urban, 26% rural (2010 Russian Census)

Population growth rate[link]

0.15% (2011)^[6]

Median age[link]

total: 38.8 years
male: 36.1 years
female: 41.1 years (2009)^[29]

Sex ratio[link]

at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15–64 years: 0.92 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.46 male(s)/female
total population: 0.86 male(s)/female (2009)^[29]

Natural increase current[link]

The number of births during the period March 2012 was down to 6609 over the same period in 2011.

-Number of births from April 2011 = 133 954

-Number of births from April 2012 = 140 563

-The birth rate for January-March 2012 was 12,7 children per woman and 12,0 children per woman during the same period in 2011.

-Number of births from January-April 2011 = 557 926

-Number of births from January-April 2012 = 593 220

Conversely the number of deaths during the same period was down sharply from 1387.

-Number of death from April 2011 = 155 453

-Number of death from April 2012 = 154 066

-The death rate for January-March 2012 was 13,7 and 14,3 during the same period in 2011.

-Number of deaths from January-April 2011 = 658 665

-Number of deaths from January-April 2012 = 640 673

Net migration rate[link]

1.11 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2010)^[30]

Vital statistics[link]

Before WW II[link]

No exact vital statistics for Russia are available for the period before WW II. Andreev^[31] made the following estimates:

[edit] After WW II^[32][33]

Total fertility rates[link]

Changes in the TFR since 1990.

In 1990, just prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia's total fertility rate (TFR) stood at 1.89. Fertility rates had already begun to decline in the late 80s due to the natural progression of Russia's demographic structure, but the rapid and widely negative changes in society following the collapse greatly influenced the rate of decline.^[34] The TFR hit an historic low of 1.16 in 1999 and has since begun to rise again, reaching 1.59 in 2010 (growth of 37%).^[35] The only federal subject of Russia to see a decline in fertility since 1999 is Ingushetia, where the TFR has fallen by 20% from 2.44 to 1.97 as of 2009.^[36]

In 2009, 8 of Russia's federal subjects had a TFR above 2.1 children per woman (the approximate minimum required to ensure population replacement). These federal subjects are Chechnya (3.38), Tyva (2.81), Ust-Orda Buryat Okrug (2.73), Agin-Buryat Okrug (2.63), Komi-Permyak (2.16), Evenk Okrug (2.58), Altai Republic (2.36), Nenets Autonomous Okrug (2.1). Of these federal subjects, four have an ethnic Russian majority (Altai, Evenk, Ust-Orda and Nenets).^[36][37]

Until 2010, the Russian republic of Chechenya was the region having highest birth rate in the former USSR (excluding Central Asia). However in 2011, the Armenian province of Qashatagh overtook it (28.9 vs 29.3 per 1,000)^[38].

In 2010, The average number of children born to women has decreased from 1513 to 1000 women from 2002 to 1469 in 2010 in urban areas the figure was 1328 children (2002 - 1350), and in the village - 1876 (in 2002. - 1993 ).

A poster in Cheboksary, Chuvashia encouraging families to have more children. Text reads "Один ребёнок - хорошо, два лучше!" One child is good, two are better!.

In recent years the percentage of children per woman 16 years or more were:

Year : 2002-2010

1 child : 30.5%-31.2%

2 children : 33.7%-34.4%

3 children : 8.9%-8.7%

4 or more children : 5.2%-4.2%

no children : 21.7%-21.5%

Note that despite a decrease in women who have not had children, the number of one-child and large families has declined between 2002 and 2010.

In every region in Russia rural areas reported higher TFR compared to urban areas. In most of the federal subjects in Siberia and the Russian Far East, the total fertility rates were high, but not high enough to ensure population replacement. For example, Zabaykalsky Krai had a TFR of 1.82, which is higher than the national average, but less than the 2.1 needed for population replacement.^[36]

Compared to other G8 countries, in 2011, Russian TFR of 1,61 children/ woman^[39] was lower than that of  France (2,01), the  USA (2,01), the  UK (1,92). Yet it approximately equals to the TFR of  Canada (1,57), and is higher than in other G8 countries:  Germany (1,36),  Japan (1,39), and  Italy (1,40).

Compared to other most populous nations, Russia has a lower TFR than  Nigeria (4,82), Pakistan (3,13), India (2,65),  Indonesia (2,28),  Brazil (2,19), the USA, and higher TFR than  China (1,54).

Compared to its neighbors, in 2011 Russia has a lower TFR than  Kazakhstan (2,67),  Mongolia (2,22),  Azerbaijan (2,03),  Norway (1,95), North Korea (1,94),  Finland (1,87). Russian TFR is close to the Chinese one, and is higher than in  Estonia (1,55),  Lithuania (1,54),  Belarus (1,49),  Georgia (1,46)^[40],  Ukraine (1,44),  Poland (1,38) and  Latvia (1,17).

Health[link]

Life expectancy[link]

Russian male and female life expectancy since 1950.^[41][42]

total population: 70.3 years^[6]
male: 64.3 years
female: 76.1 years (2011)^[43]

As of 2011, the average life expectancy in Russia was 64.3 years for males and 76.1 years for females.^[43] In the late 1950s, the USSR had a higher life expectancy than the United States,^[44] but the Soviet Union has lagged behind Western countries in terms of mortality and life expectancy since the late 1960s. The life expectancy was about 70 in 1986,^[45] prior to the transition-induced disruption of the healthcare system. The turmoil in the early 1990s caused life expectancy in Russia to steadily decrease while it was steadily increasing in the rest of the world. Recently however, Russian life expectancy has again begun to rise. Between 2006—2011 the male life expectancy in Russia rose by almost four years, increasing the overall life expectancy by nearly 4 years to 70.3.^[43]

Mortality[link]

In 2010, 1,140,368, or 56% of all deaths in Russia were caused by cardiovascular disease. The second leading cause of death was cancer which claimed 292,310 lives (14.3%). External causes of death such as suicide (1.7%), road accidents (1.4%), murders (0.9%), accidental alcohol poisoning (0.7%), and accidental drowning (0.5%), claimed 206,336 lives in total (10.2%). Other major causes of death were diseases of the digestive system (4.5%), respiratory disease (3.6%), infectious and parasitic diseases (1.6%), and tuberculosis (1.1%).^[46] The infant mortality rate in 2010 was 7.5 deaths per 1,000 (down from 8.2 in 2009 and 16.9 in 1999).^[47][48]

Under-five mortality rate[link]

13 deaths/1,000 live births (2008)^[49]

Abortions and Family Planning[link]

In the 1980s only 8–10% of married Russian women of reproductive age used hormonal and intrauterine contraception methods, compared to 20–40% in developed countries. This led to much higher abortion rates in Russia compared to developed countries: in the 1980s Russia had a figure of 120 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age compared with only 20 per 1,000 in Western countries. However, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union many changes took place, such as the demonopolization of the market for contraceptive drugs and media liberalization, which led to a rapid conversion to more efficient pregnancy control practices. Abortion rates fell in the first half of the 1990s for the first time in Russia's history, even despite declining fertility rates. From the early 1990s to 2006, the number of expected abortions per women during her lifetime fell by nearly 2.5 times, from 3.4 to 1.2. As of 2004, the share of women of reproductive age using hormonal or intrauterine birth control methods was about 46% (29% intrauterine, 17% hormonal).^[50]

Despite clear progress in family planning, the target of desired children at the desired time for a large portion of Russian families has not yet been achieved. According to a 2004 study, current pregnancies were termed "desired and timely" by 58% of respondents, while 23% described them as "desired, but untimely", and 19% said they were "undesired". The share of unexpected pregnancies remains much lower in countries with developed family planning culture, such as the Netherlands, whose percentage of unwanted pregnancies 20 years ago was half of that in Russia today.^[50]

Ethnic groups[link]

Ethnic Russians as a percentage of the population by region (2010)

The Russian Federation is home to as many as 160 different ethnic groups and indigenous peoples. As of the 2010 census, 80.9% of the population that disclosed their ethnicity (111,016,896 people) is ethnically Russian, followed by (groups larger than one million):^[8][9]

• 3.9% Tatars (5,310,000)
• 1.41% Ukrainians (1,930,000)
• 1.16% Bashkirs (1,580,000)
• 1.05% Chuvashs (1,440,000)
• 1.04% Chechens (1,430,000)
• 0.86% Armenians (1,180,000)

It is important to note that in the 2010 Census, almost 6 million people (about 4% of the overall population.) did not declare any ethnic origin, compared to about 1 million in the 2002 Census. This is due to the fact that those people were counted from administrative databases and not directly, and were therefore unable to state their ethnicity.^[8][10] Therefore, the percentages mentioned above are taken from the total population that declared their ethnicity, given that the non-declared remainder is thought to have an ethnic composition similar to the declared segment.^[11]

Most smaller groups live compactly in their respective regions and can be categorized by language group The ethnic divisions used here are those of the official census, and may in some respects be controversial. The following lists all ethnicities resolved by the 2010 census, grouped by language:^[8]

[edit] Historical perspective ^[51]

International migration to and from Russia since 1998.

  Arrivals

  Departures

  Net migration growth

The ethno-demographic structure of Russia has gradually changed over time. During the past century the most striking change is the fast increase of the peoples from the Caucasus. In 1926, these peoples composed 2% of the Russian population, compared to 6.5% in 2010. Though low in absolute numbers, the Siberian peoples also increased during the past century, but their growth was mainly realized after WW II (from 0.7% in 1959 to 1.2% in 2010) and not applicable to most of the small peoples (less than 10,000 people).

Peoples of European Russia[link]

The relative proportion of the peoples of European Russia gradually decreased during the past century, but still compose 91% of the total population of Russia in 2010. The absolute numbers of most of these peoples reached its highest level in the beginning of the 1990s. Since 1992, natural growth in Russia has been negative and the numbers of all peoples of European Russia were lower in 2010 than in 2002, the only exceptions being the Roma (high fertility rates) and the Gagauz. Several peoples saw a much larger decrease than can be explained by the low fertility rates and high mortality rates in Russia during the past two decades. Emigration and assimilation contributed to the decrease in numbers of many peoples. Emigration was the most important factor for Germans, Jews and Baltic peoples (Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians). The number of Germans halved between 1959 and 2010. Their main country of destination is Germany. The number of Jews decreased by more than 80% between 1959 and 2010. In 1970, the Soviet Union had the third largest population of Jews in the world, (2,183,000 of whom 808,000 with residence in Russia), following only that of the United States and Israel. By 2010, due to Jewish emigration, their number fell as low as 158,000. A sizeable emigration of other minorities has been enduring, too. The main destinations of emigrants from Russia are the USA (Jews, Belarussians, Chechens, Meskhetian Turks, Ukrainians and others), Israel (Jews), Germany (Germans and Jews), Poland (Poles), Canada (Finns and Ukrainians), Finland (Finns), France (Jews and Armenians) and the United Kingdom (mainly rich Russians).^{[citation needed]}

Assimilation (i.e., marrying Russians and having children of such unions counted as Russians) explains the decrease in numbers of Ukrainians, Belarusians and most of the Uralic peoples. The assimilation is reflected in the high median age of these peoples (see the table below), as assimilation is stronger among young people than among old people. The process of assimilation of the Uralic peoples of Russia is probably going on for centuries and is most prominent among the Mordvins (1.4% of the Russian population in 1926 and 0.5% in 2010), the Karelians, Veps and Izhorians. Assimilation on the other hand slowed down the decrease of the number of ethnic Russians. Besides, the decrease of the number of Russians was also slowed down by the immigration of ethnic Russians from the former Soviet republics, especially Central Asia. Similarly, the numbers of Ukrainians, Belarusians, Germans, Jews, and other non-autochthonous ethnic groups has also been decreased by emigration to Ukraine, Belarus, Germany, Israel, and so forth, respectively.

Peoples of the Caucasus[link]