National policy

On the national composition of population of the Republic of Buryatia

 During the census, compliance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation in terms of free self-determination of nationality was ensured. In the whole of Russia, at the census, more than 800 different answers were received by the population on nationality. Their spelling often differs from each other only because of the language dialect and the adopted local self-names of ethnic groups.

Buryatia is traditionally a multinational republic. When processing the 2002 census materials, the population’s responses on nationality were systematized into 160 nationalities (in 1989, 128 nationalities were counted). Changes in the national structure of the republic are due to the action of three factors:

differences in natural movement of population

processes in external migration, formed under the influence of the collapse of the USSR

the processes occurring in the change of ethnic self-consciousness under the influence of mixed marriages and other phenomena.

The national number in the republic is:

Russian 665, 5 thousand people. (67, 8%),

Buryats 272, 9 thousand people. (27, 8%),

Ukrainians 9, 6 thousand people. (1, 0 %),

Tatars 8, 2 thousand people. (0, 8%).

The group of1, 5 to 2, 5 thousand people include Belarusians, Armenians, Evenks, Soyots, Azeris and Germans. For the first time, the Soyots were included in the reference book of nationalities at the 2002 census, the number of which was 2,739. (at the 1989 census, they were taken into account in the composition of the Buryats).

For the first time after the census of 1897, the number of persons who attributed themselves to the Cossacks was obtained - 52 people (in Russia, about 140 thousand people.). Compared to 1989, the share of the Russian population decreased by 2, 1% (in Russia by 1, 7%), and the number by 60, 7 thousand people (8, 4%).

The main reason for the decrease in the number is the migration outflow of Russians, which was not replenished due to the natural population growth. According to the annual reports from 1989 to 2002, the natural increase of Russians amounted to 0.5 thousand people, and the migration loss was 31.4 thousand people.

The number of Buryats increased by 23.4 thousand people (by 9.4%). According to the annual reports for the intercensual period, the increase in the number of Buryats was due to a natural increase of 21, 8 thousand people and migration growth of 7.2 thousand people. Accordingly, their share increased from 24, 0 to 27, 8% (in Russia, from 0, 28 to 0, 31%). According to the census results in Russia in 2002, 445 thousand Buryats were recorded.

The share of such nationalities as Ukrainians (by 1.2%), Tatars (by 0, 2%), Belarusians (by 0, 3%), Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians, Kazakhs, Moldovans, Georgians, Chuvash, Bashkirs, Yakuts and etc. The main reason is the migration outflow of the population outside the republic in connection with the collapse of the USSR (returning to the former place of residence), the commissioning of the BAM. The number of Jewish people (from 1181 to 553 people) and Germans (from 2 126 to 1 548 people) was significantly reduced.

The number of Chinese (from 119 to 604 people), Mongols (from 52 to 307 people), Kyrgyz (from 208 to 500), Koreans (from 339 to 596) increased.

  In the republic, 75, 7% of the citizens speak Russianand 21, 9% of the citizens speak Buryat.