Everything 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 peoples, since it has a favorable climate and convenient location.

Among the first settlers were the ancient Greeks, who established colonies on the coast, and over time, the seaports came 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 13th century, other Turkic peoples also settled here. In 1783, the Crimean Tatars formed the dominant ethnic group. However, the Slavic population on the peninsula has grown steadily over the past two centuries, and the Russians now form 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 the Crimean Tatars is increasing by 0.9% annually. 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 - Karaites and Kimchaks.

The ethnic history of Crimea is very complex and dramatic. The peninsula has been in the hands of many states and empires, and its populations have mingled for millennia. It is safe to say that the peninsula was inhabited by few peoples until 1944. 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 have often served as a refuge for people fleeing wars.

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, the infant mortality rate has 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. kilometer. On the territory of 104 sq. km is home to about 360.5 thousand people. The city is home to about 1,236.2 people, and in the villages - about 730 people.

The fertility structure 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 population change 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 on the territory of the peninsula there are large cities with developed infrastructure and mountainous regions, where there are fewer and fewer villages. 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 in the territory of Crimea by cities, then the table will look like this.

In other settlements, the situation is as follows:

To see how urban and rural populations are distributed across the peninsula, it is best 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. Almost 47 thousand people have Ukrainian citizenship alone.

If you select the available data separately in the table, then 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 turned to the Greek Orthodox Church, under the direction of the Metropolitanate of Gothia.

In 988, Prince Vladimir of Kiev captured the Byzantine city of Chersonesos (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 XIV century. Ozbeg Khan erected the first mosque in Eski Kyrym in 1314. 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 in the territory of the peninsula live:

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

The population on the Crimean Peninsula changes every year, as elsewhere. If you follow the dynamics since 2000, the table will look like this:

The change in the ethnic composition of Crimea can be seen in the following table.

For districts and urban districts, the dynamics are as follows.

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