All about the population of Crimea

Crimea has always been a multinational region. Historically, the territory of the peninsula was interesting to many peoples, because it has a favorable climate and a convenient location.

Among the first settlers were the ancient Greeks, who founded colonies on the coast, and over time the seaports became under the control of the Romans, Byzantines and Genoese. Other residents of the Crimea - Jews, Karaites, Eastern Europeans and Turkic groups, such as the Khazars and Kipchaks.

The Crimean Tatars are an indigenous people, they have lived on the peninsula for more than 7 centuries. These are the ancestors of the modern people, who together with the Mongols moved to the West. In the XIII century, other Turkic peoples settled here. In 1783, the Crimean Tatars constituted the dominant ethnic group. However, the Slavic population on the peninsula has steadily increased over the past two centuries, and the Russians are now forming a large part.

But at the same time, a decrease in population by 0.4% is observed annually, mainly due to a decrease in the birth rate. However, the ethnic population of the Crimean Tatars is increasing annually by 0.9%. According to the same census, the list of population looks like this:

• Russians - 58.32%;
• Ukrainians - 24.30%;
• Crimean Tatars - 12%;
• Belarusians - 1.5%;
• Armenians - 0.44%;
• Jews — 0.23%;
• Greeks - 0.16%.

Small nations, but still living here - Karaites and Kimchaks.

The ethnic history of Crimea is very complex and dramatic. The peninsula was in the hands of many states and empires, and its population has been mixed for thousands of years. It is safe to say that the peninsula before 1944 was inhabited by few nations. Later, Stalin deported ethnic nationalities. About 200,000 Crimean Tatars, 70,000 Greeks, 14,000 Bulgarians, Germans, and Armenians were deported to Central Asia and Siberia.

The Roman historian Pliny the Elder noted that in the 2nd century BC, 30 nations lived peacefully in the mountains of Tavria, called the Crimea in the Middle Ages. Mountains and islands often served as a refuge for people fleeing war.

In 2014, after the return of the peninsula of Russia, according to the census results, the population of the peninsula was about 2 million people. The ethnic composition is as follows:

• Russians - 1.49 million (65.3%);
• Ukrainians - 0.35 million (15.1%);
• Crimean Tatars - 0.24 million (12.0%).

Life expectancy in the Crimea is very low compared to the rest of the world. In recent years, the infant mortality rate has been falling. In 2011, it reached 9 deaths per 1,000 babies, and in 2012, according to the latest statistics, it was 8.5 deaths per 1,000 babies.

The population density is 75 inhabitants per 1 square. kilometer. On the territory of 104 square meters. km live about 360.5 thousand people. About 1,236.2 people live in the city, and about 730 people live in the villages.

The structure of fertility is as follows:

In the past few years, the mortality rate among the population has been very high. In 2011, according to the results of the official census of the population of Ukraine, life expectancy was 71.22 years, which is more than in the past. Life expectancy for the male population was 65.98 years, while for the female population it was 75.88 years.

The annual change in population is as follows:

• 1979-1989 - + 1.11% / year;
• 1989-2001- -0.13% / year;
• 2001-2018 - -0.5% / year.

The distribution of people living on the peninsula is uneven, since the territory of the peninsula has large cities with developed infrastructure and mountainous areas, where fewer villages remain. The population in the cities of the peninsula depends on the size of the territory and not only. In addition, you can make a kind of classification by religion, citizenship.

If we consider in more detail the question of how the entire population of the country in the Crimea was distributed among cities, the table will look like this.

In other localities, the situation is as follows:

To see how the population of the city and the countryside is distributed over the territory of the peninsula, it is better to refer to the following table.

According to the last census, about 97% of local residents are citizens of Russia. 5.7 thousand people have dual citizenship, that is, Russian and Ukrainian. Only the citizenship of Ukraine is almost 47 thousand people.

If you separately select in the table the available data, it will be next.

The Crimean peninsula was Christianized at an early time, through Gothic Christianity, in the 4th century. In the 9th century, the Goths in Crimea appealed to the Greek Orthodox Church, under the leadership of the Metropolis of Gothia.

In 988, Prince Vladimir of Kiev seized the Byzantine city of Chersonese (now part of Sevastopol), where he later adopted Christianity, which was largely swept away by the Mongol invasion of Russia in the 1230s.

Islam became the state religion of the Golden Horde at the beginning of the XIV century. In 1314, Özbeg Khan built the first mosque in Eski Kyrym. Christianity returned with the annexation of the Crimean Khanate by the Eastern Orthodox Russian Empire in 1783.

After a survey of Crimeans, it turned out that the following people live in the peninsula:

• 58% are Orthodox;
• 15% are Muslims;
• 13% do not know;
• 10% believe in God, but do not belong to any religion;
• 2% atheists;
• 2% more.

The population on the peninsula of Crimea changes every year, as elsewhere. If we trace the dynamics since 2000, the table will look as follows:

The way the national composition of the Crimea has changed can be seen in the following table.

By districts and urban districts, the characteristics of the dynamics are as follows.

About why the population of Crimea is rapidly aging, see the following video.