28 October 2003 05:45
Russia "attractive country" for immigration - official
MOSCOW. Oct 28 (Interfax) - An initial analysis of the returns of the 2002 national census suggests that Russia is
"an attractive country" for immigration, Russia's chief statistician said on Tuesday.
"Russia has been an immigration country since 1989. Russia is second only to the U.S. and Germany in terms of
immigration," Vladimir Sokolin, head of the State Statistical Committee, said at a meeting with President Vladimir
Putin.
"In 1994, we were practically at the level of the U.S.," he said.
"The results of the first phase [of the census analysis] give an
idea of Russia as a whole, what kind of country it is, what ethnic
He said Russia is currently ahead of such attractive countries for immigration as Canada and Britain.
groups predominate and what problems [there are]," Sokolin said.
He said that, owing to state-of-the-art technology, this phase had taken only a year to carry out and not three
years, as did the first analysis phase after the 1989 census.
Who the immigrants are and what countries they come will be answered in the next phase of the analysis.
That phase, to be carried out next year, will elucidate more details about individual regions, cities, towns, and
villages and "make it possible to answer socioeconomic questions," Sokolin said.
He also said that an automated calculation showed Russia's permanent population to be 145.2 million people. This
puts the country in seventh place in the world in terms of population size.
There are seven ethnic groups in Russia of more than 1 million each. "Eighty percent of Russia's population
are Russians, Tatars are the second [most populace group] and Ukrainians the third," Sokolin said.
Nationalities Policy Minister Vladimir Zorin, who was present at the meeting, said census returns "have
confirmed that Russia is one of the most multiethnic states in the world." It has more than 160 ethnic groups, 23
of which number more than 400,000.
The 1989 census returns suggested there were 17 ethnic groups in the country.
Zorin said the reason for the discrepancy was that, unlike in the 1989 census, 2002 census officials used the ethnic
self-identification principle in recording people's ethnic origin. "We haven't lost a single people, a
single ethnic group since 1989," he said.
The 2002 census returns suggest that Russia has 142.4 million Russian citizens and 40,000 dual citizens. [RU EUROPE
EEU EMRG POL] as aw <>
[CEIW] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
