Russia's capital, Moscow, was the largest city in the country with over 13.1 million residents as of January 1, 2024. Less than a half of Moscow's population resided in Saint Petersburg, the second-most populous city in the country. The third-largest city, Novosibirsk, was located in the Siberian Federal District, being the highest-populated city in the Asian part of Russia. Why is Moscow so populated? The Russian capital is the center of political, industrial, business, and cultural life in Russia. Despite being one of the most expensive cities worldwide, it continues to attract people from Russia and abroad, with its resident population following a generally upward trend over the past decade. Wages in Moscow are higher than in Russia on average, and more opportunities for employment and investment are available in the capital. Furthermore, the number of people living in Moscow was forecast to continue rising, exceeding 12.8 million by 2035. Urbanization in Russia In 2024, around 109 million Russian residents lived in cities. That was approximately three-quarters of the country’s population. The urbanization rate increased steadily over the 20th century, leading to a decline in the rural population. Among the country’s regions, the Northwestern Federal District had the highest share of residents in urban areas, measured at 85 percent. In the Central Federal District, the tendency was that more people moved to Moscow and cities in the Moscow Oblast.

Among Russian cities with more than one million inhabitants, the country's capital Moscow received the highest urban environmental quality index score of 304 out of 360 points in 2023, based on six criteria and six types of area. The second-leading city in this category was Saint Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city, while Nizhny Novgorod, ranked third.

With a score of 23.62, Moscow was the leading city for startups in Russia in 2024. Saint Petersburg followed, having earned a score of 1.66 in the period observed. Furthermore, the Russia's capital ranked the major city for startups in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The score was based on several indicators, such as the number of startups in each city, the startups' qualitative results, and the cities' business and economic indicators.

On Sunday, September 12, 2021, the highest self-isolation index among Russian cities with over one million inhabitants was measured in Omsk at 2.8 points, indicating that there was a high number of people on the streets. In the capital Moscow, where most COVID-19 cases in Russia were recorded, the index reached two points. The non-working period in Russia ended on May 12, 2020.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

1117 Russian cities with city name, region, geographic coordinates and 2020 population estimate.

How to use

from pathlib import Path
import requests
import pandas as pd

url = ("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/"
   "epogrebnyak/ru-cities/main/assets/towns.csv")

# save file locally
p = Path("towns.csv")
if not p.exists():
  content = requests.get(url).text
  p.write_text(content, encoding="utf-8")

# read as dataframe
df = pd.read_csv("towns.csv")
print(df.sample(5))

Files:

• towns.csv - city information
• regions.csv - list of Russian Federation regions
• alt_city_names.json - alternative city names

Сolumns (towns.csv):

Basic info:

• city - city name (several cities have alternative names marked in alt_city_names.json)
• population - city population, thousand people, Rosstat estimate as of 1.1.2020
• lat,lon - city geographic coordinates

Region:

• region_name - subnational region (oblast, republic, krai or AO)
• region_iso_code - ISO 3166 code, eg RU-VLD
• federal_district, eg Центральный

City codes:

• okato
• oktmo
• fias_id
• kladr_id

Data sources

• City list and city population collected from Rosstat publication Регионы России. Основные социально-экономические показатели городов and parsed from publication Microsoft Word files.
• City list corresponds to this Wikipedia article.
• Alternative dataset is wiki-based Dadata city dataset (no population data).

Comments

City groups

• Ханты-Мансийский and Ямало-Ненецкий autonomous regions excluded to avoid duplication as parts of Тюменская область.

• Several notable towns are classified as administrative part of larger cities (Сестрорецк is a municpality at Saint-Petersburg, Щербинка part of Moscow). They are not and not reported in this dataset.

By individual city

• Белоозерский not found in Rosstat publication, but should be considered a city as of 1.1.2020

Alternative city names

• We suppressed letter "ё" city columns in towns.csv - we have Орел, but not Орёл. This affected:

  • Белоозёрский
  • Королёв
  • Ликино-Дулёво
  • Озёры
  • Щёлково
  • Орёл

• Дмитриев and Дмитриев-Льговский are the same city.

assets/alt_city_names.json contains these names.

Tests

poetry install
poetry run python -m pytest

How to replicate dataset

1. Base dataset

Run:

• download data stro rar/get.sh
• convert Саратовская область.doc to docx
• run make.py

Creates:

• _towns.csv
• assets/regions.csv

2. API calls

Note: do not attempt if you do not have to - this runs a while and loads third-party API access.

You have the resulting files in repo, so probably does not need to these scripts.

Run:

• cd geocoding
• run coord_dadata.py (needs token)
• run coord_osm.py

Creates:

• coord_dadata.csv
• coord_osm.csv

3. Merge data

Run:

• run merge.py

Creates:

• assets/towns.csv

As of September 2020, Moscow had the biggest amount of public routes, among which the largest number was accounted for bus routes and tram lines. The Russian northern capital Saint Petersburg, followed next with a total number of 838 routes of public transport.

Moscow was the leading city in the secondary housing market in Russia by price per square meter in June 2024. The price of an apartment on the secondary market in the capital stood at 333,000 Russian rubles per square meter, which was around 64 percent higher than the price level in Saint Petersburg.

The most popular domestic tourist destination among Russians is the Krasnodar Krai located in the south of the country on the Black Sea, which makes it a preferred summer holiday region. Nearly 31 percent of domestic travelers were reported to have visited this federal subject in 2023. The second-most visited region is Saint Petersburg, which hosted more than 10 percent of Russian holidaymakers.

Kyiv is the largest city of Ukraine, with approximately 2.95 million inhabitants as of January 1, 2022. Kharkiv had the second-largest population of around 1.42 million, followed by Odesa and Dnipro. Economic situation in Ukraine Ukraine has a population of around 42 million inhabitants - close to 70 percent of which live in urban areas, with almost three million living in Ukraine’s largest city and capital, Kyiv. The city is located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River and is one of the largest in Europe. The country’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, is about half of Kyiv's size and located in the northeast. Kharkiv was the first city to be occupied by the Soviet Union in 1917 until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Since the collapse, Ukraine has been largely divided between east and west. Many inhabitants speak Ukrainian to the west, whereas Russian is dominant in parts of the east and south. Like Kharkiv, many of Ukraine’s other biggest cities which have fewer than one million inhabitants are located to the east of the country – a region which has uprooted and displaced many of its inhabitants because of the military actions that started in 2014. In 2015, Ukrainians across the country were affected by a huge spike in inflation, which reached near 49 percent. In the following years, it marked a decrease, measuring below three percent in 2020. The country’s GDP has also been significantly impacted by the crisis, which has left approximately 1.5 million Ukrainians internally displaced since 2014, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The unemployment rate was above nine percent in 2020.

In 2023, the population of the United Kingdom was around 68.3 million, with approximately 34.5 million women and 33.1 million men. Since 1953, the male population of the UK has grown by around 9.1 million, while the female population has increased by approximately 8.5 million. Throughout this provided time period, the female population of the UK has consistently outnumbered the male population. UK population one of the largest in Europe As of 2022, the population of the United Kingdom was the largest it has ever been, and with growth expected to continue, the forecasted population of the United Kingdom is expected to reach over 70 million by the 2030s. Despite the relatively small size of its territory, the UK has one of the largest populations among European countries, slightly larger than France but smaller than Russia and Germany. As of 2022, the population density of the UK was approximately 279 people per square kilometer, with London by far the most densely populated area, and Scotland the most sparsely populated. Dominance of London As seen in the data regarding population density, the population of the United Kingdom is not evenly distributed across the country. Within England, London has a population of almost nine million, making it significantly bigger than the next largest cities of Birmingham and Manchester. As of 2022, Scotland's largest city, Glasgow had a population of around 1.7 million, with the largest cities in Northern Ireland, and Wales being Belfast and Cardiff, which had populations of 643,000 and 488,000 respectively.

One third of all telemedicine services users on SberHealth in Russia resided in the capital Moscow in 2019. Clients from Ufa, the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan, accounted for 11 percent of the total. The largest share of telemedicine users on the platform were aged from 25 to 40 years.

Despite that Moscow accounted for the largest sporting goods online sales share, the highest consumption index of sporting goods in Russia was measured in Krasnodar. To compare, Moscow listed in the fourth place.

The best city to study abroad in Russia was Moscow, having gained 82.6 points in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Best Student Cities ranking 2022. The Russian capital ranked 25th worldwide. The country's second-largest city, Saint Petersburg, had the second-highest score nationwide at 59.8 points.

In 2023 Moscow was the largest city in Europe with an estimated urban agglomeration of 12.68 million people. The French capital, Paris was the second largest city in 2023 at 11.2 million, followed by the capitals of the United Kingdom and Spain, with London at 9.6 million and Madrid at 6.75 million people. Istanbul, which would otherwise be the largest city in Europe in 2023, is excluded as it is only partially in Europe, with a sizeable part of its population living in Asia. Europe’s population almost 750 million Since 1950, the population of Europe has increased by approximately 200 million people, increasing from 550 million to 750 million in this seventy-year period. Prior to the turn of the millennium, Europe was the second-most populated continent, before it was overtaken by Africa, which saw its population increase from 228 million in 1950, to 817 million by 2000. Asia has consistently had the largest population of the world’s continents and was estimated to have a population of 4.6 billion. Europe’s largest countries Including its territory in Asia, Russia is by far the largest country in the world, with a territory of around 17 million square kilometers, almost double that of the next largest country, Canada. Within Europe, Russia also has the continents largest population at 145 million, followed by Germany at 83 million and the United Kingdom at almost 68 million. By contrast, Europe is also home to various micro-states such as San Marino, which has a population of just 30 thousand.

Moscow had the highest public transportation quality index among Russian cities, at around 82.3 points in the third quarter of 2023. It was followed by Saint Petersburg and Perm with approximately 75.4 and 71.5 index points, respectively. The average trip price, comfort, convenience, and public transport network's efficiency were taken into account while comprising indexes for each city.

Among Russian cities with 250,000 to one million inhabitants, Yaroslavl, Khimki, and Mytishchi received the highest urban environmental quality index score of 251 out of 360 points in 2023, based on six criteria and six types of area. Tyumen and Belgorod followed with 250 points.

Over 3.6 thousand people were reported to be detained at public events due to political motives in Moscow in 2019. That was the highest number of detentions at street protests, public lectures, and other events in the Russian capital over the observed period.

In 2024, according to data provided by StartupBlink the top city for startups in Central and Eastern Europe was Moscow (Russia) with a total score of 23.6, followed by Tallinn (Estonia).

Moscow had nearly 17 CCTV cameras per 1,000 inhabitants in 2023. In total, 214,000 such devices were recorded in the Russian capital. The second-largest city of the country, Saint Petersburg, recorded a density of approximately 13.5 surveillance cameras per 1,000 population.

In Moscow, approximately 77 CCTV cameras were installed per square kilometer as of November 2020. That was nearly twice as many as in Russia's second largest city, Saint Petersburg. The capital also had a higher density of surveillance cameras by thousand inhabitants.