During almost the entire 20th century, the processes of settlement evolution in Russia were characterized by significant stability. Until the 1990s, the country continued extensive urbanization, which was expressed in a constant increase in the size and share of the urban population. Since the late 1920s, Russia's rural population has steadily declined. But in the 1990s, these trends changed dramatically. The size of the country's urban population began to decline, while the rural population began to grow. Accordingly, the share of the rural population has also increased. What are the reasons for these changes? How will the ratio between urban and rural populations change in Russia in the near and distant future? This article is devoted to the answers to these questions. Urbanisation processes in Russia in the 80s During the period between the general population censuses in 1979 and 1989, urbanization processes in Russia developed quite rapidly. The share of the urban population during this period increased from 69.3% to 73.6%. The urban population grew from 95.4 million to 108.4 million people in 1979-1988. The average annual growth rate was 1.37 %. This is slightly lower than in the previous inter-census period, when the annual growth was 1.6 million people, or 1.97 %. As you know, the size of the urban or rural population in a country can change due to three components:: 1) natural population movement (the ratio of birth and death rates); 2) mechanical population movement (migration); 3) administrative - territorial transformations (AP) of rural localities to urban or urban - to rural ones. During this period, due to natural growth, the urban population increased by 6.3 million people (48.5% of the increase), due to migration - by 5.7 million people (43.8 %); due to administrative-territorial transformations (AP) - by 1 million people (7.7% of the increase). During the previous inter-census period, migration from rural localities accounted for 54.0% of the urban ... Читать далее