Demographics of Siberia
Encyclopedia
Geographically, Siberia
includes the Russia
n Urals
, Siberian
, and Far Eastern Federal District
s. The north-central parts of Kazakhstan
are sometimes included in the region.
Siberia has population density of only three persons per square kilometer. The oblasts with the highest population densities are Chelyabinsk Oblast
and Kemerovo Oblast
, with 41 and 30 persons per square km, respectively. Koryak Okrug has population density of less than 0.1 per square kilometer.
Excluding territories of north-central Kazakhstan
, Siberia thus has a total population of ca. 38.7 million (2005). The North Kazakhstan oblast has another 1.1 million inhabitants (2002).
About 70% of Siberia's people live in cities.
Novosibirsk
is the largest city in Siberia, with a population of about 1.5 million, followed by Yekaterinburg
(1.3 million, Urals), Omsk
(1.1 million), Chelyabinsk
(1.07 million, in the Urals), Krasnoyarsk
(0.91 million), Barnaul
(0.60 million), Irkutsk
(0.59 million), Kemerovo
(0.52 million), Tyumen
(0.51 million), Tomsk
(0.48 million), Nizhny Tagil
(0.39 million, Urals), Kurgan (0.36 million), Ulan Ude (0.36 million), Chita (0.32 million).
The above count, however, by including the entire Urals Federal District, includes areas not usually considered part of Siberia, e.g. the cities Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk and Nizhny Tagil listed above.
. Smaller linguistic groups are
Mongols
(ca. 600,000 speakers)
Uralic
(Samoyedic
, Ugric
; roughly 100,000 speakers), Manchu-Tungus
(ca. 40,000 speakers), Chukotko-Kamchatkan
(ca. 25,000 speakers), Eskimo–Aleut (some 2,000 speakers), the Yukaghir languages
(highly endangered), and languages isolates Ket
(but see below) and Nivkh
.
Mongolian, Turkic and Manchu-Tungus languages are sometimes taken together under the term Altaic
. At one time Uralic and Altaic were believed to form the Ural–Altaic group, though this theory has now been largely discarded. The proposed Uralo-Siberian
family combines the Uralic family with the Yukaghir languages, Chukotko-Kamchatkan, and Eskimo–Aleut. These are more umbrella terms than accepted linguistic relationships. Ket has recently been linked with the Na-Dene languages
into a Dené–Yeniseian group; while not universally accepted a broad consensus in favor of the proposal has emerged.
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
includes the Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n Urals
Urals Federal District
Ural Federal District is one of the eight federal districts of Russia. The district was established on 13 May 2000 by a decree of the President of Russia. The district is mostly located in the geographical region of Ural, but also includes some parts of the Volga Region; its extent is different...
, Siberian
Siberian Federal District
Siberian Federal District is one of the eight federal districts of Russia. Its population was 19,254,300 according to the 2010 Census, living on an area of...
, and Far Eastern Federal District
Far Eastern Federal District
The Far Eastern Federal District is the largest of the eight federal districts of Russia, while being also the least populated, with a population of 6,291,900 . The Far Eastern Federal District was established in 2000 by then-President Vladimir Putin and is currently being governed by presidential...
s. The north-central parts of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
are sometimes included in the region.
Siberia has population density of only three persons per square kilometer. The oblasts with the highest population densities are Chelyabinsk Oblast
Chelyabinsk Oblast
-External links:*...
and Kemerovo Oblast
Kemerovo Oblast
Kemerovo Oblast , also known as Kuzbass after the Kuznetsk Basin, is a federal subject of Russia , located in southwestern Siberia, where the West Siberian Plain meets the South Siberian mountains...
, with 41 and 30 persons per square km, respectively. Koryak Okrug has population density of less than 0.1 per square kilometer.
Population
- Urals Federal DistrictUrals Federal DistrictUral Federal District is one of the eight federal districts of Russia. The district was established on 13 May 2000 by a decree of the President of Russia. The district is mostly located in the geographical region of Ural, but also includes some parts of the Volga Region; its extent is different...
, population ca. 14.4 million- Kurgan OblastKurgan OblastKurgan Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Kurgan. Population: -History:The oblast was formed on February 6, 1943, just when the Soviet Army decisively defeated Hitler's forces near Stalingrad...
, population 1.02 million (2002) - Sverdlovsk OblastSverdlovsk OblastSverdlovsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia located in the Urals Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Yekaterinburg formerly known as Sverdlovsk. Population: -Geography:...
, population 4.49 million (2002) - Tyumen OblastTyumen OblastTyumen Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Tyumen. The oblast has administrative jurisdiction over two autonomous okrugs—Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Tyumen is the largest city, with over half a million inhabitants...
, population 3.26 million (2002)- Khanty-Mansi Autonomous OkrugKhanty-Mansi Autonomous OkrugKhanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug , also known as Yugra, is a federal subject of Russia . Population: The people native to the region are the Khanty and the Mansi, known collectively as Ob Ugric people...
, population 1.5 million - Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous OkrugYamalo-Nenets Autonomous OkrugYamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug , is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the town of Salekhard. Population: -Geography and natural history:...
, population 550,000 inhabitants (2002)
- Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug
- Chelyabinsk OblastChelyabinsk Oblast-External links:*...
, population 3.6 million (2002)
- Kurgan Oblast
- Siberian Federal DistrictSiberian Federal DistrictSiberian Federal District is one of the eight federal districts of Russia. Its population was 19,254,300 according to the 2010 Census, living on an area of...
, population ca. 20.28 million- Altai KraiAltai KraiAltai Krai is a federal subject of Russia . It borders with, clockwise from the south, Kazakhstan, Novosibirsk and Kemerovo Oblasts, and the Altai Republic. The krai's administrative center is the city of Barnaul...
, administrative center — BarnaulBarnaul-Russian Empire:Barnaul was one of the earlier cities established in Siberia. Originally chosen for its proximity to the mineral-rich Altai Mountains and its location on a major river, the site was founded by the wealthy Demidov family in the 1730s. In addition to the copper which had originally...
, population 2.6 million (2002) - Altai RepublicAltai RepublicAltai Republic is a federal subject of Russia . Its capital is the town of Gorno-Altaysk. The area of the republic is . Population: -Geography:...
, capital — Gorno-Altaisk, population 202,947 (2002) - Buryat Republic, capital — Ulan Ude, population 981,238 (2002)
- Zabaykalsky Krai, administrative center — Chita, population 1,155,346 (2002)
- Irkutsk OblastIrkutsk OblastIrkutsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia , located in southeastern Siberia in the basins of Angara River, Lena, and Nizhnyaya Tunguska Rivers. The administrative center is the city of Irkutsk. Population: -History:...
, administrative center — IrkutskIrkutskIrkutsk is a city and the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, one of the largest cities in Siberia. Population: .-History:In 1652, Ivan Pokhabov built a zimovye near the site of Irkutsk for gold trading and for the collection of fur taxes from the Buryats. In 1661, Yakov Pokhabov...
, population 2.77 million (2002) - Republic of KhakassiaKhakassiaThe Republic of Khakassia or Khakasiya is a federal subject of Russia located in south-central Siberia. Its capital city is Abakan, which is also the largest city in the republic...
, capital — AbakanAbakanAbakan is the capital city of the Republic of Khakassia, Russia, located in the central part of Minusinsk Depression, at the confluence of the Yenisei and Abakan Rivers. Population: -History:...
, population 575,400. - Kemerovo OblastKemerovo OblastKemerovo Oblast , also known as Kuzbass after the Kuznetsk Basin, is a federal subject of Russia , located in southwestern Siberia, where the West Siberian Plain meets the South Siberian mountains...
, administrative center — KemerovoKemerovoKemerovo is an industrial city in Russia, situated on the Tom River, east-northeast of Novosibirsk. It is the administrative center of Kemerovo Oblast, located in the major coal mining region of the Kuznetsk Basin...
, population 2.90 million (2002) - Krasnoyarsk KraiKrasnoyarsk KraiKrasnoyarsk Krai is a federal subject of Russia . It is the second largest federal subject after the Sakha Republic, and Russia's largest krai, occupying an area of , which is 13% of the country's total territory. The administrative center of the krai is the city of Krasnoyarsk...
, administrative center — KrasnoyarskKrasnoyarskKrasnoyarsk is a city and the administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located on the Yenisei River. It is the third largest city in Siberia, with the population of 973,891. Krasnoyarsk is an important junction of the Trans-Siberian Railway and one of Russia's largest producers of...
, population 2.97 million (2002). - Novosibirsk OblastNovosibirsk OblastNovosibirsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia located in southwestern Siberia. Its administrative and economic center is the city of Novosibirsk. Population: -Overview:...
, administrative center — NovosibirskNovosibirskNovosibirsk is the third-largest city in Russia, after Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and the largest city of Siberia, with a population of 1,473,737 . It is the administrative center of Novosibirsk Oblast as well as of the Siberian Federal District...
, population 2.69 million (2002) - Omsk OblastOmsk OblastOmsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia , located in southwestern Siberia. The oblast has an area of and a population of with the majority, 1.15 million, living in Omsk, the administrative center....
, administrative center — OmskOmsk-History:The wooden fort of Omsk was erected in 1716 to protect the expanding Russian frontier along the Ishim and the Irtysh rivers against the Kyrgyz nomads of the Steppes...
, population 2.08 million (2002) - Tomsk OblastTomsk OblastTomsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It lies in the southeastern West Siberian Plain, in the southwest of the Siberian Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Tomsk. Population:...
, administrative center — Tomsk, population 1.06 million (2002) - Tuva RepublicTuvaThe Tyva Republic , or Tuva , is a federal subject of Russia . It lies in the geographical center of Asia, in southern Siberia. The republic borders with the Altai Republic, the Republic of Khakassia, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Irkutsk Oblast, and the Republic of Buryatia in Russia and with Mongolia to the...
, capital — KyzylKyzyl-External links:*** in Kyzyl, Russia*...
, population 305,510 (2002)
- Altai Krai
- Far Eastern Federal DistrictFar Eastern Federal DistrictThe Far Eastern Federal District is the largest of the eight federal districts of Russia, while being also the least populated, with a population of 6,291,900 . The Far Eastern Federal District was established in 2000 by then-President Vladimir Putin and is currently being governed by presidential...
(Russian Far EastRussian Far EastRussian Far East is a term that refers to the Russian part of the Far East, i.e., extreme east parts of Russia, between Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean...
), population ca. 7.02 million- Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, capital — YakutskYakutskWith a subarctic climate , Yakutsk is the coldest city, though not the coldest inhabited place, on Earth. Average monthly temperatures range from in July to in January. The coldest temperatures ever recorded on the planet outside Antarctica occurred in the basin of the Yana River to the northeast...
, population 949,280 (2002) — the only Far Eastern region that is sometimes counted as part of Siberia.
- Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, capital — Yakutsk
Excluding territories of north-central Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
, Siberia thus has a total population of ca. 38.7 million (2005). The North Kazakhstan oblast has another 1.1 million inhabitants (2002).
Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk is the third-largest city in Russia, after Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and the largest city of Siberia, with a population of 1,473,737 . It is the administrative center of Novosibirsk Oblast as well as of the Siberian Federal District...
is the largest city in Siberia, with a population of about 1.5 million, followed by Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District with a population of 1,350,136 , making it Russia's...
(1.3 million, Urals), Omsk
Omsk
-History:The wooden fort of Omsk was erected in 1716 to protect the expanding Russian frontier along the Ishim and the Irtysh rivers against the Kyrgyz nomads of the Steppes...
(1.1 million), Chelyabinsk
Chelyabinsk
Chelyabinsk is a city and the administrative center of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located in the northwestern side of the oblast, south of Yekaterinburg, just to the east of the Ural Mountains, on the Miass River. Population: -History:...
(1.07 million, in the Urals), Krasnoyarsk
Krasnoyarsk
Krasnoyarsk is a city and the administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located on the Yenisei River. It is the third largest city in Siberia, with the population of 973,891. Krasnoyarsk is an important junction of the Trans-Siberian Railway and one of Russia's largest producers of...
(0.91 million), Barnaul
Barnaul
-Russian Empire:Barnaul was one of the earlier cities established in Siberia. Originally chosen for its proximity to the mineral-rich Altai Mountains and its location on a major river, the site was founded by the wealthy Demidov family in the 1730s. In addition to the copper which had originally...
(0.60 million), Irkutsk
Irkutsk
Irkutsk is a city and the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, one of the largest cities in Siberia. Population: .-History:In 1652, Ivan Pokhabov built a zimovye near the site of Irkutsk for gold trading and for the collection of fur taxes from the Buryats. In 1661, Yakov Pokhabov...
(0.59 million), Kemerovo
Kemerovo
Kemerovo is an industrial city in Russia, situated on the Tom River, east-northeast of Novosibirsk. It is the administrative center of Kemerovo Oblast, located in the major coal mining region of the Kuznetsk Basin...
(0.52 million), Tyumen
Tyumen
Tyumen is the largest city and the administrative center of Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located on the Tura River east of Moscow. Population: Tyumen is the oldest Russian settlement in Siberia. Founded in 16th century to support Russia's eastward expansion, the city has remained one of the most...
(0.51 million), Tomsk
Tomsk
Tomsk is a city and the administrative center of Tomsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Tom River. One of the oldest towns in Siberia, Tomsk celebrated its 400th anniversary in 2004...
(0.48 million), Nizhny Tagil
Nizhny Tagil
Nizhny Tagil is a city in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, situated east of the virtual border between Europe and Asia. Population: -History:...
(0.39 million, Urals), Kurgan (0.36 million), Ulan Ude (0.36 million), Chita (0.32 million).
The above count, however, by including the entire Urals Federal District, includes areas not usually considered part of Siberia, e.g. the cities Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk and Nizhny Tagil listed above.
Ethnicities and languages
Most non-Slavic groups are TurkicTurkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
. Smaller linguistic groups are
Mongols
Mongols
Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...
(ca. 600,000 speakers)
Uralic
Uralic languages
The Uralic languages constitute a language family of some three dozen languages spoken by approximately 25 million people. The healthiest Uralic languages in terms of the number of native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Mari and Udmurt...
(Samoyedic
Samoyedic languages
The Samoyedic languages are spoken on both sides of the Ural mountains, in northernmost Eurasia, by approximately 30,000 speakers altogether....
, Ugric
Ugric languages
Ugric or Ugrian languages are a branch of the Uralic language family. The term derives from Yugra, a region in north-central Asia.They include three languages: Hungarian , Khanty , and Mansi language...
; roughly 100,000 speakers), Manchu-Tungus
Tungusic languages
The Tungusic languages form a language family spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria by Tungusic peoples. Many Tungusic languages are endangered, and the long-term future of the family is uncertain...
(ca. 40,000 speakers), Chukotko-Kamchatkan
Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages
The Chukotko-Kamchatkan or Chukchi–Kamchatkan languages are a language family of extreme northeastern Siberia. Its speakers are indigenous hunter-gatherers and reindeer-herders....
(ca. 25,000 speakers), Eskimo–Aleut (some 2,000 speakers), the Yukaghir languages
Yukaghir languages
The Yukaghir languages are a small family of two closely related languages – Tundra and Kolyma Yukaghir – spoken by the Yukaghir in the Russian Far East living in the basin of the Kolyma River. According to the 2002 Russian census, both Yukaghir languages taken together have 604 speakers...
(highly endangered), and languages isolates Ket
Ket language
The Ket language, formerly known as Yenisei Ostyak, is a Siberian language long thought to be an isolate, the sole surviving language of a Yeniseian language family...
(but see below) and Nivkh
Nivkh language
Nivkh or Gilyak is a language spoken in Outer Manchuria, in the basin of the Amgun , along the lower reaches of the Amur itself, and on the northern half of Sakhalin. 'Gilyak' is the Manchu appellation...
.
Mongolian, Turkic and Manchu-Tungus languages are sometimes taken together under the term Altaic
Altaic languages
Altaic is a proposed language family that includes the Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, and Japonic language families and the Korean language isolate. These languages are spoken in a wide arc stretching from northeast Asia through Central Asia to Anatolia and eastern Europe...
. At one time Uralic and Altaic were believed to form the Ural–Altaic group, though this theory has now been largely discarded. The proposed Uralo-Siberian
Uralo-Siberian languages
Uralo-Siberian is a hypothetical language family consisting of Uralic, Yukaghir, Chukotko-Kamchatkan and Eskimo–Aleut. It was proposed in 1998 by Michael Fortescue, an expert in Eskimo–Aleut and Chukotko-Kamchatkan, in his book Language Relations across Bering Strait...
family combines the Uralic family with the Yukaghir languages, Chukotko-Kamchatkan, and Eskimo–Aleut. These are more umbrella terms than accepted linguistic relationships. Ket has recently been linked with the Na-Dene languages
Na-Dené languages
Na-Dene is a Native American language family which includes at least the Athabaskan languages, Eyak, and Tlingit languages. An inclusion of Haida is controversial....
into a Dené–Yeniseian group; while not universally accepted a broad consensus in favor of the proposal has emerged.
See also
- Northern indigenous peoples of Russia
- Paleosiberian languagesPaleosiberian languagesPaleosiberian languages or Paleoasian languages is a term of convenience used in linguistics to classify a disparate group of languages spoken in some parts of north-eastern Siberia and some parts of Russian Far East...
- Eurasiatic languagesEurasiatic languagesEurasiatic is a language macrofamily proposed by Joseph Greenberg that includes many language families historically spoken in northern Eurasia. The eight branches of Eurasiatic are Etruscan, Indo-European, Uralic–Yukaghir, Altaic, Korean-Japanese-Ainu, Gilyak, Chukotian, and Eskimo–Aleut, spoken in...
- Demographics of RussiaDemographics of RussiaThe 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....
- First All Union Census of the Soviet Union