Social

Russian Federation has 85 federal subjects including 22 republics, 9 kray, 46 oblast, 3 cities of federal importance, 1 autonomous oblast and 4 autonomous okrug.

The population of Russia in May 2015 was approx. 146 million and shows tendency for stabilization and even slight growth after a number of years of decreasing (142.9 million in 2010). The problem of former decreasing population is still in focus of the government which introduced a number of state initiatives with a goal to change the negative trend. Those include but are not limited to monetary award for the second born child, changes in the legislation concerning families with many children, investments in building of new kindergartens etc.

Most of the population (73%, approx. 107 million) live in cities while the rest (27%, approx. 39 million) live in rural areas. In January 2015 there were 15 cities with over one million inhabitants.

The geographical distribution of population is not even with a much higher density in the European part (up to Ural Mountains). The majority of population is condensed in the triangle St. Petersburg-Sochi-Irkutsk. Only 25% of population lives in Siberia which takes 3/4 of the Russian territory. 

Representatives of 180 nationalities (ethnical groups) with the majority of Russians (approx. 80%) live on the territory of the Russian Federation. The distribution of Russians differs a lot from region to region with the lowest figure of less than 5% of total population in Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia.  

Regarding gender distribution female population dominates with 53% (approx. 77 million) of the total population. 22 million people are younger than working age (16 - 59 for males and 16-54 for females), 88 million are of working age and 31 million are older than working age.

The average salary in Russia in 2014 was 32.6 thousand rubles (approx. 860 USD) per month. However, in 2015 due to weak ruble the average salary has a tendency for decreasing 31.1 thousand rubles , especially calculated in foriegn currency (approx. 614 USD). At the same time the average salary in 2015 was 60.8 thousand rubles in Moscow and 41.3 thousand rubles in St. Petersburg. 

According to Legatum Institute Russia took 68^th place out of 142 countries in wealth of population and standard of life (Prosperity index) in 2014. Scandinavian countries historically are in top ten with Norway taking the first place.

Sources: Ministry of Finance, Federal State Statistics Service, Moscow Statistics Service