All Ten of Least Urbanized Regions in Russian Federation are Non-Russian Republics

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 20 – Preliminary results from the delayed Russian Census show that all ten of the least urbanized regions in the Russian Federation are non-Russian republics, that a majority of the most urbanized ones are predominantly ethnic Russian regions on the periphery of the country, and that urbanization of the country as a whole growing only slowly.

            The Altay Republic is the most rural, with 69 percent of its people living outside cities. The other non-Russian republics on the list of the most rural are Chechnya, Karachayevo-Cherkessia, Daghestan, Kalmykia, Adygeya, Russian-occupied Crimea, Kabardino-Balkaria, Tyva and Ingushetia.

            The most urban federal subjects, other than Moscow and St. Petersburg, are in descending order Magadan, Murmansk, Kemerovo, Sverdlovsk, Khabarovsk, Chelyabinsk, Sakhalin, Ivanovo, Yaroslavl, and Tyumen, a majority of which are far from the center (profile.ru/society/rossiya-uplotnyaetsya-perepis-2021-pokazala-kakim-regionam-grozit-zapustenie-1101885/).

            This pattern is intriguing in its consequences because it suggests that the non-Russian republics and Russian regions on the periphery of the country share settlement and outmigration patterns and as such are both distinct from Russian regions nearer the center which are not only more Russian but more urban as well.

            In the words of Russian demographer Mikhail Denisenko, this convergence of trends is very worrisome because it means that Russia is at risk of losing its border regions, Russian and non-Russian alike; and what he doesn’t mention but that is also a potential problem is that the non-Russians may ally themselves with Russian regions having similar demographic situations.