All about the population of Crimea

Crimea has always been a multinational region. It so happened historically that the territory of the peninsula was interesting to many people because it has a favorable climate and convenient location.

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

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, Crimean Tatars formed the dominant ethnic group. However, the Slavic population on the peninsula has been steadily increasing over the past two centuries, and the Russians are now forming the bulk.

But at the same time, a decrease in the population by 0.4% is observed annually, mainly due to a decrease in the birth rate. However, the ethnic population of Crimean Tatars increases annually by 0.9%. According to the same census, the population list 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, are 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 millennia. It is safe to say that until 1944 the peninsula was inhabited by a few peoples. 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 II century BC, 30 peoples lived peacefully in the mountains of Tavria, called Crimea in the Middle Ages. Mountains and islands often served as refuge for people fleeing war.

In 2014, after the return of the Russian peninsula, according to the census, 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 Crimea is very low compared to the rest of the world. In recent years, infant mortality rates have been declining. In 2011, it reached 9 deaths per 1000 babies, and in 2012, according to the latest statistics, it was 8.5 deaths per 1000 babies.

The population density is 75 inhabitants per 1 sq. Km. 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 villages.

The birth rate is as follows:

Over the past few years, mortality among the population has been very high. In 2011, according to the results of the official census 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 - 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 there are large cities with developed infrastructure and mountainous areas on the peninsula, where there are fewer villages left. The population in the cities of the peninsula depends on the size of the occupied 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 was distributed on the territory of Crimea by city, then the table will look as follows.

In other settlements, the situation is as follows:

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

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

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

The Crimean peninsula was Christianized in the early times, through Gothic Christianity, in the 4th century. In the 9th century, the Goths in Crimea turned to the Greek Orthodox Church, under the direction of the Metropolitan of Gothia.

In 988, Prince Vladimir of Kiev captured the Byzantine city of Khersones (now part of Sevastopol), where he later converted to 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 14th century. Ozbeg Khan in Eski Kyrym in 1314 erected the first mosque. 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 on the territory of 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% other.

The population on the Crimean peninsula changes every year, as elsewhere. If we trace the dynamics since 2000, then the table will look like this:

How the national composition of Crimea was changing can be seen in the following table.

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

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