12 February 2004 04:03
Census shows English is Russia`s second language
MOSCOW. Feb 12 (Interfax) - The rate of Russian citizens who know the Russian language has increased, according to
the final results of the national population census of 2002, Nationalities Minister Vladimir Zorin said on Thursday.
He said that 98.2% of the population knows Russian, 0.4% more than in 1989, when the previous population census was
conducted.
English ranks second in popularity: 6.9 million Russians (4.8%) know the language, Zorin said.
Some 5.3 million people (3.7%) know Tatar, and 2.9 million (2%) know German. Ukrainian is understood by 1.8 million
Russian citizens (1.2%).
"The data shows that national languages are developing in multilingual Russia," Zorin said. [RU EUROPE EEU
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[Interfax] |
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