The reason of de-urbanization in Russia is not that the population tends to move from the cities to villages but that the towns are turning into villages.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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The Small De-Urbanization
The number of townspeople annually goes up by 180,000 worldwide to cover up to 60 percent of the Earth population by 2030, the U.N. says. But this process lacks acceleration in Russia, where the number of villagers shed from 38.93 million in 1990 to 38.76 million in 2005, and some growth was noticed past year. As reduction in city’s population was much faster in the recent 15 years, the share of countryfolk grew from 26.3 percent in 1990 to 27 percent in 2005.
The reason of de-urbanization in Russia is not that the population tends to move from cities to villages but that the towns are turning into villages. According to Human Demography and Ecology Center of Russia’s Science Academy, the last and the biggest wave of administrative and territorial reform hit the country in 2004, turning 700,000 residents of towns into the countryfolk all of a sudden.
But there is one region in Russia, where the number of countryfolk benefits from the natural gains. It is the South Federal District, which hosts a fourth of Russian villagers – the number grew by nearly 1.5 million people from 1989 to 2002. As 29 percent of all children live exactly in the countryside, the trend is obviously steady.
At the same time, only 20 percent of Russia’s villagers live in the Central Federal District (15 percent) vs. 33 percent in 1989. So, the natural urbanization is underway in central Russia and in Povolzhie, the number of countryfolk goes up in the south thanks to the nice weather, while Siberia and the Urals are taken by de-urbanization and de-industrialization caused by the towns decline.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 31, 2006
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