Population (entry)

Categories / Population
POPULATION of St. Petersburg is the second largest in the Russian Federation after Moscow. From the 18th to the start of the 20th centuries the population continually grew: in 1725 - 40,000 people, in 1750 - 74,000; in 1800 - 220,000; in 1818 - 386,000; in 1869 - 667, 200; in 1881 - 861,300; in 1890 - 954,400; in 1900 - 1,439,600; in 1910 - 1,905,600. In the 20th century, the Civil War and the Blockade of Leningrad slowed growth of the population. In 1920, 722,000 people were living in the city, in 1926 - 1,614,000; in 1939 - 3,119,000; at the start of 1944 - approximately 600,000; in 1959 - 3,340,000; in 1970 - 3,987,000; in 1979 - 4,569,000. In 1989, 4,990,700 people were permanently living in Leningrad (while 5,023,500 people were living in the city on the day of the census). In 1990, the permanent population reached 5,002,000 inhabitants. The high rate of growth in the city population was provided for by migration from different regions of the country (for example, by the 1890 census approximately 70% of inhabitants were not born in St. Petersburg). In the 20th century the growth of the population was also associated with the inclusion of the city of large outskirt towns (Pushkin, Sestroretsk, Kronstadt and others). From 1991 the number of permanent inhabitants in St. Petersburg reduced, at the start of 2001 it included 4,628,000 people, from which 2,800,000 people were of working age, approximately 1,100,000 were individuals of retirement age, more than 700,000 were individuals under the age of 16 years. 55% of St. Petersburg's population is women. The mortality rate exceeds the birth rate (in 1999 there were 29,400 births and 72,300 deaths). The ageing rate within the population of St. Petersburg is one of the highest in the Russian Federation. The average age in 2002 was 39.5 years (in 1990 it was 36.4). In 1991-93 emigration exceeded immigration, from 1994 immigrants have exceeded those leaving (in 1998 + 14,700 people). Traditionally, the city centre has been much more densely populated than the regions of St. Petersburg. In the second half of the 20th century a massive outflow of people occurred from the centre of the city to the periphery, including the "sleeping" districts. The tendency of having a densely populated centre has reoccurred in the 1990s by increasing the city area and decreasing the average population density: in 1897 - 110 people per hectare, in 1976 - 62 people per hectare. St. Petersburg represents all social groups of society (see servicemen, nobles, intelligentsia, peasants, merchants, bourgeois, seasonal workers, people who had been relocated, servants, workers, commoners, students, and civil servants). The overwhelming majority of the St. Petersburg population consisted of Russians. In the 18th-19th centuries, communities were formed of Armenians, Belarusians, Jews, Latvians, Germans, Poles, Tartars, Finns, Ukrainians and Estonians. Among foreigners living in St. Petersburg were the British, Dutch, Italian, French, Swedish and others. In the second half of the 20th century the numbers of representatives from the Volga, Caucasus and Central Asia increased (in 1989 in Leningrad there were 11,800 Azerbaijanis, 9,000 Chuvash, 7,900 Uzbeks, 7,800 Georgians, 6,300 Kazakhs, 5,400 Moldavians, 5,200 Mordvinians, 3,300 Lithuanians, 3,000 Bashkirs). Since the end of the 1980s different national cultural unions have arisen in St. Petersburg (in 2002 approximately 200), by 2001 there were 10 national-cultural autonomies registered, formed on the basis of the Russian Federation law "Concerning the National-Cultural Autonomy" (1996): Azerbaijani, Armenian, Bashkirian, Dagestan, Jewish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Tartar, Ukrainian, Ingrian Finns (Inkeri).

References: Юхнева Н. В. Этнический состав и этносоциальная структура населения Петербурга, вторая половина XIX - нач. XX в.: Стат. анализ. Л., 1984; Ленинград: Ист.-геогр. атлас. 2-е изд. М., 1989; Население Санкт-Петербурга: (Стат. сб.). СПб., 1994; Петербуржцы: (Этнонац. аспекты массового сознания): Социол. очерки. СПб., 1995; Многонациональный Петербург: История. Религия. Народы. СПб., 2002.

A. Y. Chistyakov. Ленинград: Ист.-геогр. атлас. 2-е изд. М., 1989
Многонациональный Петербург: История. Религия. Народы. СПб., 2002
Петербуржцы: (Этнонац. аспекты массового сознания): Социол. очерки. СПб., 1995
Юхнева Н. В. Этнический состав и этносоциальная структура населения Петербурга, вторая половина XIX - нач. XX в.: Стат. анализ. Л., 1984
Население Санкт-Петербурга: (Стат. сб.). СПб., 1994 Siege of 1941-44
Military Personnel
Nobles
Intelligentsia
Peasants
Bourgeoisie
Otkhodniki
Townspeople (Posadsky)
Servants
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Students
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Russians
Armenians
Belarusians
Jews
Latvians
Germans
Poles
Tartars
Finns
Ukrainians
Estonians
British
Dutch
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