First results of 2002 census published

A summary of the results of the 2002 Russian census have been published, said Vice Chairman of Goskomstat Sergei Kolesnikov at a press conference yesterday. According to the census, the Russian population is 145.2 million. 73% of Russian residents, or 73% of the total population lives in cities, while 27% live in rural areas. Russian is seventh worldwide in terms of total population behind China, India, US, Indonesia, Brazil and Pakistan.

Compared to the last census, which was taken in 1989, Russia's total population shrunk by 1.8 million people. 1.6 million of those people lived in cities and 200 thousand lived in rural areas. Like most developed countries, urbanization - or the process where people move to cities - has stopped. Almost 20% of the population lives in 13 cities with a population of one million or more: Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Omsk, Kazan, Chelyabinsk, Rostov, Ufa, Volgograd and Perm. The two largest cities - Moscow and Saint Petersburg have a population of 10.4 million and 4.7 million, respectively. Moscow is one of the world's 20 most populated cities.

More than 160 nationalities reside in Russia. Seven nationalities have populations of more than one million: Tatars, Ukrainians, Bashkurs, Chuvashes, Chechens and Armenians. Russians make up the largest percent of the population with 116 million or 80% of the total residents.

The country is composed of 67.6 million men and 77.6 million women. For every thousand men, there are 1147 women. For the past 30 years now, women have been increasing their numbers compared to men. The medium age for a resident of Russia is 37.7 years or three years older than in 1989. Goskomstat will continue publishing results of the 2002 Russian census in the months to come with reports on economic activity, migration, birthrates and living conditions of the Russia population.