Demographics of Russia - Ethnic Groups

Ethnic Groups

The Russian Federation is home to as many as 160 different ethnic groups and indigenous peoples. As of the 2010 census, 80.9% of the population that disclosed their ethnicity (111,016,896 people) is ethnically Russian, followed by (groups larger than one million):

• 3.9% Tatars (5,310,000)
• 1.41% Ukrainians (1,930,000)
• 1.16% Bashkirs (1,580,000)
• 1.05% Chuvashs (1,440,000)
• 1.04% Chechens (1,430,000)
• 0.86% Armenians (1,180,000)

It is important to note that in the 2010 Census, almost 6 million people (about 4% of the overall population.) did not declare any ethnic origin, compared to about 1 million in the 2002 Census. This is due to the fact that those people were counted from administrative databases and not directly, and were therefore unable to state their ethnicity. Therefore, the percentages mentioned above are taken from the total population that declared their ethnicity, given that the non-declared remainder is thought to have an ethnic composition similar to the declared segment.

Most smaller groups live compactly in their respective regions and can be categorized by language group. The ethnic divisions used here are those of the official census, and may in some respects be controversial. The following lists all ethnicities resolved by the 2010 census, grouped by language: