Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic Peoples Declined in Size by 50 Percent between End of Soviet Times and Now, Newly Released Russian Census Results Show

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 4 – The 20 Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic peoples within the current borders of the Russian Federation declined from 3.2 million in 1989, the date of the last Soviet census, to 1.6 million in 2021, the date of the most recent Russian one, according to data released last week by Rosstat, Russia’s state statistical agency.

            The data have been assembled by Finnish scholar Seppo Lallukka and published by the MariUver portal (mariuver.com/2023/01/03/perepis-2021/#more-71674). All but two of these nations declined in number, the exceptions being the Nentsy who increased from 34,200 to 49,600 and the Khanty who increased from 22,300 to 31,500.

            Lallukka also noted that the rate of decline of these groups was far greater than that of the Tatars and the ethnic Russians, yet another indication of just how dire their demographic situation has become.