02 December 2003 18:19
Russian census figures suggest move from country to town is over
Yekaterinburg, 2 December: The process of urbanization in Russia is at an end - since the beginning of the 90s the
rural population has virtually stopped moving into the town, First Deputy Chairman of the Russian State Statistics
Committee Aleksandr Surinov said at the TASS-Ural regional news centre where he summed up the results of the all-Russia
population census.
The correlation between the urban and rural population in Russia today is 73.3 per cent to 26.7 per cent and has been
the same for 10 years. "This allows us to consider the urbanization process that began in Russia at the start of
the 20th century as over," Surinov believes.
At the same time, according to State Statistics Committee figures, there are more than 13,000 abandoned villages in
Russia. There are a huge number of population centres inhabited by only five-10 people. Their fate must be resolved by
the Russian government over the next 10 years, Surinov said.
[ITAR-TASS news agency] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
