Due to the devastating impact of the Second World War on the Soviet population, the total population in 1950 was almost 15.5 million fewer than in 1940, which is a decrease of eight percent. In Russia (RSFSR), the largest of the Soviet states, the population difference was almost nine million people; also eight percent. It would take until 1955 for the populations of either the USSR or Russia to reach their pre-war levels, which was a decade after the conflict had ended. Urbanization Despite this drop in total population, industrialization and urbanization saw a significant change in the USSR's population distribution between the given years. The Soviet urban population increased by 6.3 million, or ten percent, between 1940 and 1950; 5.8 million of this was in Russia, which was a 15 percent increase. In contrast, the Soviet Union's rural population dropped by 21.8 million (a 17 percent change), 14.5 million of which in Russia (a decrease of 20 percent). In terms of overall population, the urban population of the USSR rose from 33 to 39 percent between 1940 and 1950, and from 34 to 43 percent in Russia. By 1955, 44 percent of the Soviet population, and 49 percent of the Russian population, lived in an urban setting.

In Soviet Russia (RSFSR) in 1939 and 1959, ethnic Russians made up the largest share of the total population, with a share of approximately 83 percent. Tatars were the second largest ethnic group, followed by Ukrainians. Russians were consistently the largest ethnic group in the Soviet Union as a whole, with an overall share of 53 percent in 1979.

Russian estimates suggest that the total population of the Soviet Union in 1941 was 195.4 million people, before it fell to 170.5 million in 1946 due to the devastation of the Second World War. Not only did the USSR's population fall as a consequence of the war, but fertility and birth rates also dropped due to the disruption. Hypothetical estimates suggest that, had the war not happened and had fertility rates remained on their pre-war trajectory, then the USSR's population in 1946 would have been 39 million higher than in reality. Gender differences When it comes to gender differences, the Soviet male population fell from 94 million in 1941, to 74 million in 1946, and the female population fell from 102 to 96 million. While the male and female population fell by 19 and 5.5 million respectively, hypothetical estimates suggest that both populations would have grown by seven million each had there been no war. In actual figures, adult males saw the largest change in population due to the war, as a drop of 18 to 21 percent was observed across the three age groups. In contrast, the adult female population actually grew between 1941 and 1946, although the population under 16 years fell by a number similar to that observed in the male population due to the war's impact on fertility.

The spike in infant and child mortality rates due to Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, meant that almost half of all deaths in Soviet Russia in 1941 were among those below the age of five, and the majority of those were among infants below the age of one year. The consequences of this and the decrease in Soviet fertility can be observed in the unusually-low mortality rates among infants in 1942. Because of this spike, the share of deaths across other age groups was lower than what would have been typical of Russia in terms of its demographic development. The share of deaths among children then decreased as the war progressed and the conflict moved west, although it remained disproportionately high until the late 1940s.

Historical chart and dataset showing total population for Russia by year from 1950 to 2025.

The Second World War had a profound impact on gender ratios within the Soviet Union's population, and its effect on different age groups varied greatly. The Soviet population structure had already been shaped heavily by the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the famines of the early 1920s and early 1930s. The impact of these events on mortality and fertility meant that, in 1941, the generations whose births corresponded with these events had a lower population than would be expected on a typical population model. For example, in 1941, those aged between 5 and 9 had a significantly lower population than those aged 10 to 14, due to the effects of the Soviet famine of 1932-1933. Additionally, women outnumbered men in all age groups except the very youngest, due to the disproportionate effect of conflict and infant mortality on male populations. Impact of WWII In order to observe the impact of the war, one must compare populations of specific age groups in 1941 with the following age group in 1946. For men of "fighting age" in 1941, i.e. those aged between 15 and 44, these populations experience the most substantial decrease over the course of the war. For example, there are 5.6 million men aged 15-19 in 1941, but just 3.5 million aged 20-24 in 1946, giving a decrease of 38 percent. This decrease of almost forty percent can be observed until the 45-49 group, where the difference is 25 percent. Additionally, women aged between 15 and 34 saw a disproportionate decrease in their populations over this period, as many enlisted in the army and took an active part in the conflict, most notably as medics, snipers, and pilots.

The war's impact on fertility and child mortality meant that, in 1946, the total population under four years old was less than half its size in 1941. Generally, variations between age groups then fluctuated in line with pre-war patterns, however the overall ratio of women to men increased further after the war. For all age groups over 20 years, the number of men decreased between these years, whereas all women's age groups over 30 years saw an increase; this meant that, despite the war, women over 30 had a higher life expectancy in 1946.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The project examined the mutual impact of Soviet state economic policy, development and structure in the years 1932-1940. In these years the economy developed rapidly after earlier investment and sacrifices. Growth was harmed by the Stalin terror-repressions of 1936-8, and by the need to increase military expenditure in view of the threat from Nazi Germany and Japan.


Main Topics:

These tables on Soviet economic development in the 1930s are a product of ESRC Grant RES-000-22-1443, Soviet Economic Policy and Development from the XVII to the XVIII Party Congresses, 1934-1939.

These tables are not intended to be comprehensive, but to supplement easily-available figures with data from the Russian archives and from published sources which are not easily accessible to the historian who does not know the Russian language.

In terms of Soviet economic success in the mid-twentieth century, industrialization was generally the area that saw the most progress in terms of Stalin's five-year plans' targets. By 1940, almost 40 percent of the Soviet workforce was employed in the industrial and manufacturing sector, however, much of this progress was at the expense of the agricultural sector (the largest employment sector before the 1930s), which suffered as a result of this rapid, often mismanaged, transition.

Additionally, during this period, socialist policy focused on increasing the quality of life of Soviet citizens, and therefore placed a much stronger emphasis on tertiary sectors, including education and healthcare.

Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the Kursk, Russia metro area from 1950 to 2025.

Life expectancy in Russia was 29.6 in the year 1845, and over the course of the next 175 years, it is expected to have increased to 72.3 years by 2020. Generally speaking, Russian life expectancy has increased over this 175 year period, however events such as the World Wars, Russian Revolution and a series of famines caused fluctuations before the mid-twentieth century, where the rate fluctuated sporadically. Between 1945 and 1950, Russian life expectancy more than doubled in this five year period, and it then proceeded to increase until the 1970s, when it then began to fall again. Between 1970 and 2005, the number fell from 68.5 to 65, before it then grew again in more recent years.

Over the 1930s, the Soviet Union's output of raw materials increased dramatically, with steel output increasing by a factor of eight, and coal output by a factor of nine.

Russia

The fertility rate of a country is the average number of children that women from that country will have throughout their reproductive years. From 1840 until 1910, Russia's fertility rate was relatively consistent, remaining between 6.7 and 7.4 children per woman during this time. Between 1910 and 1920, the fertility rate drops sharply as a result of the First World War and Russian Revolution (for individual years of WWI, the fertility rate dropped as low as 3.4). From 1920 to 1930 the fertility rate returns above 6 again, however a gradual decline then begins, and by the end of the Second World War, the Russian segment of the Soviet Union's fertility rate was below 2. The population experienced a relatively small 'baby boom' in the two decades following the war, but then the fertility rate dropped again, most sharply between 1990 and 1995 at the end of the Soviet Union's reign. Russia's fertility rate reached its lowest point in 2000 when it fell to just 1.25 children per woman, but in the past two decades it has risen again, and is expected to reach 1.8 in 2020.

The Second World War had a sever impact on gender ratios across European countries, particularly in the Soviet Union. While the United States had a balanced gender ratio of one man for every woman, in the Soviet Union the ratio was below 5:4 in favor of women, and in Soviet Russia this figure was closer to 4:3.

As young men were disproportionately killed during the war, this had long-term implications for demographic development, where the generation who would have typically started families in the 1940s was severely depleted in many countries.

Over the first half of the 20th century, the Soviet Union's GDP per capita rose from 1,218 U.S. dollars to 2,8334 U.S. dollars. There was a slight decrease between 1913 and 1929 due to the devastation caused by the First World War and Russian Revolution and the transition to a communist government and socialist economic structure. However, GDP per capita grew over the following three intervals, and the Soviet Union's relative isolation in the 1920s and 1930s meant that it was relatively untouched by the Great Depression in the 1930s. At the end of the recovery period after the Second World War, in 1950, GDP per capita had already exceeded pre-war levels by a significant margin, and the Soviet Union emerged as one of the two global superpowers, alongside the United States.

This graph shows the total population of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the years between 1922 and 1935, as well as the total number of males and females. After the First World War the Baltic states began claiming their independence from tsarist Russia, as the events of the Russian Revolution took place. Inter-war Estonia The Estonian War of Independence from 1918 to 1920 led to the country's first period of independence, until it became occupied by the Soviet Union again in 1940 during the Second World War. After Estonia gained independence the country experienced a period of political turmoil, including a failed coup d'etat in 1924, and was hit hard by the Great Depression in 1929 before things became more stable in the mid 1930s. Between 1939 and 1945 Estonia's population was devastated by the Second World War, with some estimates claiming that as many as 7.3 percent of all civilians perished as a result of the conflict. From the graph we can see the population grew by 119 thousand people during the 12 years shown, growing from 1.107 million to 1.126 million. The number of women was also higher than the number of men during this time, by 67 thousand in 1922 and 68 thousand in 1934. Inter-war Latvia For Latvia, Independence was a hard-won struggle that had devastated the population in the late 1910s. Similarly to Estonia, the advent of independence brought many challenges to Latvia, and a period of political and economic turmoil followed, which was exacerbated by the Great Depression in 1929. After economic recovery began in 1933, and a coup d'etat established stricter control in 1934, the Latvian economy and political landscape became more stable and the quality of life improved. This lasted until the Second World War, where Latvia became one of the staging grounds of Germany's war against Soviet Russia, and approximately 12.5 percent of all civilians died. From the data we can see that Latvia's population between 1925 and 1935 grew steadily by 95,000 in this decade, with the number of men and women growing at a similar rate. Inter-war Lithuania Lithuania's experience in the interwar period was slightly different to that of Latvia and Estonia. The end of the First World War led to a growing movement for independence from German, Russian or Polish influence, however these countries were reluctant to cede control to one another, and independence was finally achieved in 1922. A right wing dictatorship was established in 1926, which maintained political and civil control until the outbreak of the Second World War, however interference from other nations, particularly Germany, was ever-present in Lithuanian economic activity. From the graph we have only one set of figures, showing that the Lithuanian population was just over 2 million in 1929, with approximately 5 percent more women than men. World War II again devastated Lithuania's population, with almost 14.4 percent of the entire population falling during the conflict.

Over the course of the Second World War approximately 127.2 million people were mobilized. The world's population in 1940 was roughly 2.3 billion, meaning that between five and six percent of the world was drafted into the military in some capacity. Approximately one in every 25 people mobilized were women, who generally served in an administrative or medical role, although hundreds of thousands of women did see active combat. Largest armies In absolute numbers, the Soviet Union mobilized the largest number of people at just under 34.5 million, and this included roughly 35 percent of the USSR's male population. By the war's end, more Soviets were mobilized than all European Axis powers combined. However, in relative terms, it was Germany who mobilized the largest share of its male population, with approximately 42 percent of men serving. The USSR was forced to find a balance between reinforcing its frontlines and maintaining agricultural and military production to supply its army (in addition to those in annexed territory after 1941), whereas a large share of soldiers taken from the German workforce were replaced by workers drafted or forcibly taken from other countries (including concentration camp prisoners and PoWs). Studying the figures The figures given in these statistics are a very simplified and rounded overview - in reality, there were many nuances in the number of people who were effectively mobilized for each country, their roles, and their status as auxiliary, collaborative, or resistance forces. The British Empire is the only power where distinctions are made between the metropole and its colonies or territories, whereas breakdowns of those who fought in other parts of Asia or Africa remains unclear. Additionally, when comparing this data with total fatalities, it is important to account for the civilian death toll, i.e. those who were not mobilized.

In 1938, the year before the outbreak of the Second world War, the countries with the largest populations were China, the Soviet Union, and the United States, although the United Kingdom had the largest overall population when it's colonies, dominions, and metropole are combined. Alongside France, these were the five Allied "Great Powers" that emerged victorious from the Second World War. The Axis Powers in the war were led by Germany and Japan in their respective theaters, and their smaller populations were decisive factors in their defeat. Manpower as a resource In the context of the Second World War, a country or territory's population played a vital role in its ability to wage war on such a large scale. Not only were armies able to call upon their people to fight in the war and replenish their forces, but war economies were also dependent on their workforce being able to meet the agricultural, manufacturing, and logistical demands of the war. For the Axis powers, invasions and the annexation of territories were often motivated by the fact that it granted access to valuable resources that would further their own war effort - millions of people living in occupied territories were then forced to gather these resources, or forcibly transported to work in manufacturing in other Axis territories. Similarly, colonial powers were able to use resources taken from their territories to supply their armies, however this often had devastating consequences for the regions from which food was redirected, contributing to numerous food shortages and famines across Africa, Asia, and Europe. Men from annexed or colonized territories were also used in the armies of the war's Great Powers, and in the Axis armies especially. This meant that soldiers often fought alongside their former-enemies. Aftermath The Second World War was the costliest in human history, resulting in the deaths of between 70 and 85 million people. Due to the turmoil and destruction of the war, accurate records for death tolls generally do not exist, therefore pre-war populations (in combination with other statistics), are used to estimate death tolls. The Soviet Union is believed to have lost the largest amount of people during the war, suffering approximately 24 million fatalities by 1945, followed by China at around 20 million people. The Soviet death toll is equal to approximately 14 percent of its pre-war population - the countries with the highest relative death tolls in the war are found in Eastern Europe, due to the intensity of the conflict and the systematic genocide committed in the region during the war.

During the Second World War, the three Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Finland mobilized the largest share of their male population. For the Allies, the Soviet Union mobilized the largest share of men, as well as the largest total army of any country, but it was restricted in its ability to mobilize more due to the impact this would have on its economy. Other notable statistics come from the British Empire, where a larger share of men were drafted from Dominions than from the metropole, and there is also a discrepancy between the share of the black and white populations from South Africa.

However, it should be noted that there were many external factors from the war that influenced these figures. For example, gender ratios among the adult populations of many European countries was already skewed due to previous conflicts of the 20th century (namely WWI and the Russian Revolution), whereas the share of the male population eligible to fight in many Asian and African countries was lower than more demographically developed societies, as high child mortality rates meant that the average age of the population was much lower.

Throughout the Second World War, the United States consistently had the largest gross domestic product (GDP) in the world. Additionally, U.S. GDP grew significantly throughout the war, whereas the economies of Europe and Japan saw relatively little growth, and were often in decline. The impact of key events in the war is also reflected in the trends shown here - the economic declines of France and the Soviet Union coincide with the years of German invasion, while the economies of the three Axis countries experienced their largest declines in the final year of the war.