Ethnic groups in Russia

• 1. Introduction

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  Ethnic groups in Russia number more than 190, and the 2021 census shows how far apart their sizes can be. Russians were counted at more than 105 million people. At the other end of the table, only 12 people were recorded as Central Asian Roma. Russia is the largest country in the world, and it is a multinational state. How does a government count people who decide for themselves who they are? Which groups are growing, which are shrinking, and which are barely holding on? And what does a country owe to languages spoken by small communities?

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• 2. Counting Nationality

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  The 2021 census found more than 147.1 million people living in Russia. That is 4.3 million more than the 2010 census, a rise of 3.03%. Yet only 130.587 million participants chose to state their nationality.

  The census rules explain part of this. Russian censuses let citizens report nationality by ancestry, but they also let people report by self-identification. The figures therefore record how people see themselves, not a fixed family tree.

  The census series reaches back to 1926, and that earliest count will matter later.

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• 3. The Federal Map

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  The Russian Federation is made up of 83 federal subjects, and 21 of them are national republics. The source describes these as self-governing regions organized along ethnic lines.

  Four more subjects are autonomous okrugs, which usually have a substantial or predominant ethnic minority. One is an autonomous oblast.

  The ranked census list shows how those regions compare in the size of the peoples behind them.

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• 4. Largest Nations

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  In 2021 the Tatars were the largest group after the Russians, with 4,713,669 people, or 3.20% of the population. Chechens followed with 1,674,854, and Bashkirs with 1,571,879. Chuvash numbered 1,067,139 and Avars 1,012,074. Armenians stood at 946,172, Ukrainians at 884,007, Dargins at 626,601, and Kazakhs at 591,970.

  The bottom of the table looks very different. Montenegrins were counted at 85 people and Kereks at 23. Georgian Jews numbered just 14.

  In the earliest tables, several small groups were not counted separately at all. They appeared only under collective headings, including Small Dagestan Peoples and Small Siberian Peoples.

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• 5. Shifting Shares

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  In 1926 the census counted 71,374,283 Russians, or 78.1% of the population. By 1959 the share had climbed to 83.3%, the highest figure in the table. After that it fell to 81.5% in 1989, then 79.83% in 2002 and 77.71% in 2010. In 2021 it stood at 71.76% of everyone counted, or 80.85% of those who declared a nationality.

  Ukrainians show an even steeper change. They numbered 6,870,976 in 1926, or 7.9%. By 1939 the count was 3,205,061, and by 2021 it was 884,007, or 0.6%.

  Other groups grew sharply. Chechens rose from 318,361 in 1926 to 1,674,854 in 2021. Tajiks went from 52 people to 350,236. Uzbeks went from 942 to 323,278. Mordvins moved the other way, from 1,306,798 to 484,450. Chuvash fell from 1,773,645 in 1989 to 1,067,139.

  The majority population has been in slight decline since the 1950s. The source points to a below replacement fertility rate and population ageing. In 2010, Ivan Beloborodov made rough projections to 2030. He estimated that Russians would fall to around 70 to 60% of the total.

  Ageing is the key word there, and the 2021 census sorted every group into fifteen age bands, from 0-4 to 70 and over.

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• 6. Generations Apart

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  The 2021 census counted 6,474,099 children aged 0-4 and 14,817,627 people aged 70 and over. Russians made up 66.95% of the youngest band but 77.42% of the oldest.

  Chechens show the reverse pattern. They were 2.19% of the youngest children and 0.31% of those aged 70 and over. Ukrainians run the other way, at 0.12% of the youngest band and 1.24% of the oldest. Belarusians are 0.02% of the youngest and 0.33% of the oldest.

  Tatars are far more even, at 3.42% of the youngest band and 3.10% of the oldest.

  The pyramids also show how recent some arrivals are. Tajiks make up 0.44% of children aged 0-4 but only 0.03% of those aged 70 and over.

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• 7. Language and Schooling

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  The constitution of Russia recognizes Russian as the official language. Individual republics may declare one or more official languages of their own. Many of these subjects have at least two, Russian and the language of the "eponymous" nationality.

  The census also sorts peoples into language families. Slavic speakers total 106,709,884, or 81.72%. Turkic peoples total 11,287,749 (8.64%) and Caucasian peoples 5,642,353 (4.32%). The Uralic family covers 1,649,635 people, or 1.26%. Armenian, Iranian and Mongolic groups each fall below 1%, and a category of other peoples makes up 2.15%.

  Minority languages have a real media presence. There are more than 1,350 newspapers and magazines, 300 TV channels and 250 radio stations in over 50 of these languages. New legislation allows minority languages to be used in federal radio and TV broadcasting.

  In 2007, 6,260 schools provided teaching in 38 minority languages. Over 75 minority languages were taught as a subject in 10,404 schools. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe noted significant efforts to supply more textbooks and teachers. It also noted shortcomings in access to education for people belonging to certain minorities.

  More than 2,000 national minorities' public associations and 560 national cultural autonomies exist. The Committee of Ministers found that in many regions, state support for preserving and developing minority cultures was still inadequate. Groups without their own national territory fare worse than the "eponymous" ones, because their resources are relatively limited.

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• 8. Northern Peoples

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  Small indigenous peoples of the North and Far East make up a distinct category of minorities. They keep very traditional lifestyles, often in a hazardous climate, while adapting to the modern world. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia passed legislation to protect their rights.

  A European observer named Gil-Robles noted agreements between indigenous representatives and oil companies. Those agreements were meant to compensate for potential damage to peoples' habitats from oil exploration.

  In 2007 the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe saw a mixed picture. Some initiatives for development existed. But the social and economic situation of numerically small indigenous peoples had been affected by recent federal legislative amendments. Those amendments removed some positive measures on access to land and other natural resources.

  Land and natural resources, the very things oil exploration puts at risk, were the point on which that 2007 assessment turned.

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