topics
tools
Expatica countries
editor's choice

Top 8 places to visit in Moscow

Tips for travelling in Russia Part 1

Tax: a practical guide

Tragic history lurks in Sochi's ski slopes

Tips for travelling in Russia Part 2

Index Last Var.(%)
BEL 20 2078.2 -0.14
DAX 6290 -0.30
IBEX 30 6546.3 0.13
CAC 40 3005.4 -0.22
FTSE 100 5293.52 -0.84
AEX 289.21 -0.35
DJIA 12442.49 -1.24
Nasdaq 2813.69 -2.10
FTSE MIB 13133.82 0.34
TSX Composite 11330.68 0.04
ASX 4098.8 -2.61
Hang seng 18951.85 -1.30
Straits Times 2779.1 -1.54
ISEQ 20 485.06 -0.87
You are here: Home Moving to Country Facts Russia facts: Government and population
Enlarge font Decrease font Text size


30/03/2010Russia facts: Government and population

Russia facts: Government and population In the second part of our factbook we deal with population and government in Russia.

Population

Population: 140,041,247 (July 2009 est.)

Age structure: 0-14 years 14,8 percent (male 10,644,833/female 10,095,011); 15-64 years 71,5 percent (male 48,004,040/female 52,142,313); 65 years and over (male 5,880,877/female 13,274,173) (2009 est.)

Median age: 38,4 years (male 35,2 years/female 41,6 years) (2009 est.)

Population growth rate: -0,467 percent (2009 est.)

Birth rate: 11,1 births/ 1,000 population (2009 est.)

Death rate: 16, 06 deaths/1,000 population (2009 est.)

Net migration rate: 0,28 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.)

Urban population: 73 percent of total population (2008)

Rate of urbanization: -0,5 percent annual rate of change (2005-2010 est.)

Sex ratio: At birth 1,06 male(s)/female; under 15 years 1,05 male(s)/female; 15-64 years and over 0,44 ,male(s)/female; total population 0,86 male(s)/female (2009 est.)

Infant mortality rate: total 10,56 deaths/1,000 live births; male 12,08 deaths/1,000 births; female 8,94 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)

Life expectancy: total population 66,03 years; male 59,33 years; female 73,14 years (2009 est.)


Total fertility rate:  1,41 children born/woman (2009 est.)

HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rate: 1,1 percent (2007 est.)

People living with HIV/AIDS:  940,000 (2007 est.)

HIV/AIDS deaths: 40,000 (2007 est.)

Nationality: Noun: Russian; adjective: Russian

Ethnic groups: Russian 79.8 percent, Tatar 3,8 percent, Ukrainian 2 percent, Bashkir 1.2 percent, Chuvash 1.1 percent, other or unspecified 12.1 percent (2002 census)

Religions: Russian Orthodox 15-20 percent, Muslim 10-15 percent, other Christian 2 percent (2006 est.) note: estimates are of practicing worshipers; Russia has large populations of non-practicing believers and non-believers, a legacy of over seven decades of Soviet rule

Languages: Russian, many minority languages

Literacy (age 15+ can read and write): total population 99,4 percent (male 99,7 percent/female 99,2 percent)

School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education): total 14 years (male 13 years/female 14 years) (2006)

Education expenditures: 3,8 percent of GDP (2005)

Government

Country name: conventional long form: Russian Federation; conventional short form: Russia; local long form: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; local short form: Rossiya

Government type: Federation

Capital: Moscow (geographic coordinates 55 45 N, 37 35 E); time zone UTC+3; daylight saving time (+1h) begins last Sunday in March and ends last Sunday in October. Russia is divided into 11 time zones.

Administrative divisions:
46 oblasts (oblastey, singular - oblast), 21 republics (respublik, singular - respublika), 4 autonomous okrugs (avtonomnykh okrugov, singular - avtonomnyy okrug), 9 krays (krayev, singular - kray), 2 federal cities (goroda, singular - gorod), and 1 autonomous oblast (avtonomnaya oblast')

Oblasts: Amur (Blagoveshchensk), Arkhangel'sk, Astrakhan', Belgorod, Bryansk, Chelyabinsk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Kaliningrad, Kaluga, Kemerovo, Kirov, Kostroma, Kurgan, Kursk, Leningrad, Lipetsk, Magadan, Moscow, Murmansk, Nizhniy Novgorod, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Orenburg, Orel, Penza, Pskov, Rostov, Ryazan', Sakhalin (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Samara, Saratov, Smolensk, Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg), Tambov, Tomsk, Tula, Tver', Tyumen', Ul'yanovsk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Vologda, Voronezh, Yaroslavl'

Republics: Adygeya (Maykop), Altay (Gorno-Altaysk), Bashkortostan (Ufa),
Buryatiya (Ulan-Ude), Chechnya (Groznyy), Chuvashiya (Cheboksary), Dagestan (Makhachkala), Ingushetiya (Magas), Kabardino-Balkariya (Nal'chik), Kalmykiya (Elista), Karachayevo-Cherkesiya (Cherkessk), Kareliya (Petrozavodsk), Khakasiya (Abakan), Komi (Syktyvkar), Mariy-El (Yoshkar-Ola), Mordoviya (Saransk), North Ossetia (Vladikavkaz), Sakha [Yakutiya] (Yakutsk), Tatarstan (Kazan'), Tyva (Kyzyl), Udmurtiya (Izhevsk)

Autonomous okrugs: Chukotka (Anadyr'), Khanty-Mansi (Khanty-Mansiysk), Nenets (Nar'yan-Mar), Yamalo-Nenets (Salekhard)
krays: Altay (Barnaul), Kamchatka (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy), Khabarovsk, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Perm', Primorskiy [Maritime] (Vladivostok), Stavropol', Zabaykal'sk (Chita)

Federal cities: Moscow [Moskva], Saint Petersburg [Sankt-Peterburg]

Autonomous oblast: Yevrey [Jewish] (Birobidzhan)

Independence: 24 August 1991 (from the Soviet Union)

National holiday: Russia Day 12 June (1990)

Constitution: adopted 12 December 1993

Legal system: Based on civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage: 18 years of age, universal

Executive branch:
•    Chief of state: President Dmitriy Anatolyevich Medvedev (since 7 May 2008). He was elected for a four-year term (eligible for a second term), however, the term length was extended in 2008 to six years, going into effect in the elections of 2012. There is no vice president; if the president dies in office or is not able to exercise his power for whatever reason, the premier is to serve as acting president until new elections are held, which must be within three months  
•    Head of government: Premier Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (since 8 May 2008)
•    First deputy premiers: Igor Ivanovich Shuvalov, Viktor Alekseyevich Zubkov (since 12 May 2008)
•    Deputy premiers: Sergey Borisovish Ivanov (since 12 May 2008), Dmitryi Nikolayevich Kozak (since 14 October 2008), Aleksey Leonidovich Kudrin (since 24 September 2007), Igor Ivanovich Sechin (since 12 May 2008), Sergey Semenovich Sobyanin (since 12 May 2008), Aleksandr Dmitiyevich Zhukov (since 9 March 2004)
•    Cabinet: Ministries of the Government or “Government” composed of the premier and his deputies, ministers, and selected other individuals; all are appointed by the president
•    Presidential Administration: provides staff and policy support to the president, drafts presidential decrees, and coordinates policy among government agencies.

Public transportation in Moscow, Russia

Legislative branch: bicameral Federal Assembly or Federalnoye Sobraniye consists of an upper house, the Federation Council or Sovet Federatsii (168 seats; as of July 2000, members appointed by the top executive and legislative officials in each of the 84 federal administrative units - oblasts, krays, republics, autonomous okrugs and oblasts, and the federal cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg; serve four-year terms) and a lower house, the State Duma or Gosudarstvennaya Duma (450 seats; as of 2007, all members elected by proportional representation from party lists winning at least 7% of the vote; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)

Elections: State Duma - last held 2 December 2007 (next to be held in December 2011)

Election results: State Duma - United Russia 64.3%, CPRF 11.5%, LDPR 8.1%, Just Russia 7.7%, other 8.4%; total seats by party - United Russia 315, CPRF 57, LDPR 40, Just Russia 38

Judicial branch: Constitutional Court; Supreme Court; Supreme Arbitration Court; judges for all courts are appointed for life by the Federation Council on the recommendation of the president

Political parties and leaders:  A Just Russia [Sergey Mironov]; Communist Party of the Russian Federation or CPRF [Gennadiy Andreyevich Zyganov]; Liberal Democratic Party of Russia or LDPR [Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovkiy]; Patriots of Russia [Gennadiy Semigin]; People's Union [Sergey Baburin]; Right Cause [Leonid Yakovlevich Gozman, Boris Yuriyevich Titov, and Georgiy Georgiyevich Bovt] (registration pending; formed from merger of Union of Right Forces, Democratic Party of Russia, and Civic Force); United Russia [Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin]; Yabloko Party [Sergey Sergeyevich Mitrokhin]

Political pressure groups and leaders: Association of Citizens with Initiative of Russia (TIGR); Confederation of Labour of Russia (KTR); Federation of Independent Labour Unions of Russia; Freedom of Choice Interregional Organization of Automobilists; Glasnost Defence Foundation; Golos Association in Defence of Voters' Rights; Greenpeace Russia; Human Rights Watch (Russian chapter); Institute for Collective Action; Memorial (human rights group); Movement Against Illegal Migration; Pamjat (preservation of historical monuments and recording of history); Russian Orthodox Church; Russian Federation of Car Owners; Russian-Chechen Friendship Society; SOVA Analytical-Information Centre; Union of the Committees of Soldiers' Mothers; World Wildlife Fund (Russian chapter)

International organisation participation: APEC, Arctic Council, ARF, ASEAN (dialogue partner), BIS, BSEC, CBSS, CE, CERN (observer), CICA, CIS, CSTO, EAEC, EAPC, EBRD, FATF, G-20, G-8, GCTU, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC, LAIA (observer), MIGA, MINURCAT, MINURSO, MONUC, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD (accession state), OIC (observer), OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, PFP, SCO, UN, UN Security Council, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UNTSO, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO (observer), ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US: chief of mission: Ambassador Sergey Ivanovich Kislyak; chancery: 2650 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007; telephone: [1] (202) 298-5700, 5701, 5704, 5708; fax: [1] (202) 298-5735; consulate(s) general: Houston, New York, San Francisco, Seattle

Diplomatic representation from the US: chief of mission: Ambassador John R. Beyrle; embassy: Bolshoy Deviatinskiy Pereulok No. 8, 121099 Moscow
mailing address: PSC-77, APO AE 09721; telephone: [7] (495) 728-5000
FAX: [7] (495) 728-5090; consulate(s) general: Saint Petersburg, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg


0 reactions to this article

0 reactions to this article

Looking for a job?

Browse all jobs

Search for a home?

Browse all houses
ask your question
Discussion Forums

Community Noticeboard Russia

New Sound Logic

Community Noticeboard Russia

IFAs / FSIs / Country Managers / Confidential Introducers

Discuss Moscow Culture

EUR 25 for your 10 minutes: Expatica Survey 2011

Community Noticeboard Russia

EUR 25 for your 10 minutes: Expatica Survey 2011

Community Noticeboard Russia

Russian-related gift ideas

participate in the forums

Inside Expatica
Groups and clubs in Moscow

Groups and clubs in Moscow

Here’s a list of some of the groups and clubs that you can join while staying in Moscow.

Women's groups and clubs in Moscow

Women's groups and clubs in Moscow

Here are some of the many women's groups and clubs in the city.

Editor's Guide: Lifestyle in Moscow

Editor's Guide: Lifestyle in Moscow

Here's an introduction to our Lifestyle section for Moscow, from dating in the age of social media to shopping and gardening.

Editor's Guide: Getting Started in Moscow

Editor's Guide: Getting Started in Moscow

Here's a brief guide to Getting Started in Moscow, from where to go for visa and banking info to handling Russian business culture and managing a Moscow culture shock.