Announcements

Highlights

PROFILE

PROJECT GLOBE COUNTRY LEAD:
Dr. Felix Vartanian
Russian Academy of Advanced Medical Science

OFFICIAL NAME: Russian Federation

GEOGRAPHY
Area: 17 million sq. km. (6.5 million sq. mi.); about 1.8 times the size of the United States.
Cities: Capital--Moscow (pop. 8.3 million).
Other cities--St. Petersburg (4.6 million), Novosibirsk (1.4 million), Nizhniy Novgorod (1.3 million).
Climate: Northern continental.

PEOPLE/HEALTH

  

Population:

 141,377,752 (July 2007 est.)

Age structure:

 0-14 years: 14.6%
15-64 years: 71.1%
65 years and over: 14.4%

Median age:

 38.2 years

Population growth rate:

 '-0.484% (2007 est.)

Birth rate:

 10.92 births/1,000 population (2007 est.)

Death rate:

 16.04 deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.)

Net migration rate:

 0.28 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)

Infant mortality rate:

 11.06 deaths/1,000 live births
12.6 deaths/1,000 live births
9.42 deaths/1,000 live births (2007 est.)

Life expectancy:

 65.87 years
59.12 years
73.03 years (2007 est.)

Total fertility rate:

 1.39 children born/woman (2007 est.)

HIV/AIDS

 860,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:

 9,000 (2001 est.)

Ethnic groups:

 Russian 79.8%, Tatar 3.8%, Ukrainian 2%, Bashkir 1.2%, Chuvash 1.1%, other or unspecified 12.1% (2002 census)

Religions:

 Russian Orthodox 15-20%, Muslim 10-15%, other Christian 2% (2006 est.)

Languages:

 Russian, many minority languages

Literacy:

 99.4%
 

GOVERNMENT
Type: Federation.
Independence: August 24, 1991.
Constitution: December 12, 1993. 
Political parties: The December 2003 Duma elections were contested by United Russia, the Communist Party (KPRF), the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), the Homeland (Rodina) bloc, the Union of Right Forces (SPS) and Yabloko. SPS and Yabloko, parties favoring liberal reforms, failed to clear the 5% threshold to enter the Duma as a party.
Subdivisions: 21 autonomous republics and 68 autonomous territories and regions.
Suffrage: Universal at 18 years.

ECONOMY
GDP (2006 est.): $733 billion.
Growth rate (2006 est.): 6.6%.
Natural resources: Petroleum, natural gas, timber, furs, precious and nonferrous metals.
Agriculture: Products--Grain, sugar beets, sunflower seeds, meat, dairy products.
Industry: Types--Complete range of manufactures: automobiles, trucks, trains, agricultural equipment, advanced aircraft, aerospace, machine and equipment products; mining and extractive industry; medical and scientific instruments; construction equipment.
Trade (2005): Exports--$245 billion: petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas, woods and wood products, metals, chemicals. Major markets--EU, CIS, China, Japan. Imports--$125 billion: machinery and equipment, chemicals, consumer goods, medicines, meat, sugar, semi-finished metal products. Major partners--EU, U.S., NIS, Japan, China. U.S. exports--$3 billion. Principal U.S. exports (2005)--oil/gas equipment, poultry, inorganic chemicals, tobacco, aircraft, medical equipment, autos/parts. U

GENERAL INFORMATION
Most of the roughly 143 million Russians derive from the Eastern Slavic family of peoples, whose original homeland was probably present-day Poland. Russian is the official language of Russia and is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the language of such giants of world literature as Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekov, Pasternak and Solzhenitsyn.