Demographics
Tyumen's population grew steadily from the 16th century through the 19th century. However, when the Trans-Siberian Railway came through at the end of the 19th century, the town's rate of population growth was greatly boosted. Tyumen rapidly became the largest town in the region, with approx. 30,000 inhabitants by the beginning of the 20th century. Tyumen again experienced rapid population growth with the coming of World War 2. The evacuation of workers from factories in central Russia in 1941 more than doubled Tyumen's population to 150,000.
In the 1960s, the discovery of the rich oil and gas fields in Western Siberia caused the city's population, which had not been forecast to exceed 250,000 inhabitants that decade, to swell to almost half a million. After the growth of the 1960s, a period of population stability lasted until 1988, when economic depression hit the Soviet Union. The city's population in 1989 was 476,869, according to the census of that year. However, within five or six years Tyumen was again a major economic center with a rising population. By 2002, Tyumen's population had risen to 510,719. Further population growth (mainly due to migration and the incorporation of surrounding settlements) meant that by 2008 regional government statistics put Tyumen's population at 588,600 inhabitants.
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