Population of Russia: how many people live in the country on 1 January 2025
On 1 January 2025, Russia had 146,119,928 people living in it. This is the latest Rosstat estimate for the start of the year, posted on the website. An estimate for 1 January 2026 is not yet available on the site. Rosstat has a demographic forecast: in the average scenario it gave 145.16 million people for the start of 2026. But on 1 January 2025 the actual figure already exceeded even the high scenario. Below is an analysis of why this happened, where people live and what is known about 2025, with interactive charts linked.
How many people live in Russia now
Estimate for 1 January 2025: 146,119,928 people. A year earlier it was 146,150,789, so the population decreased by 30,861 people in 2024. On average during 2024 the country had 146,135,359 people living in it: this figure is used for per‑capita calculations.
Important note from the Rosstat footnote: the estimate is given without accounting for the DPR, LPR, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. All population rows in this article, including the forecast, are arranged this way.
How the change for 2024 breaks down can be seen in the dataset with population estimate and components of change:
- natural decline (more deaths than births): 599,454 people;
- migration gain (more arrivals than departures): 568,593 people;
- total: minus 30,861 people.
The series from 2000 is discussed in the article "Population of Russia by year". Here we look at what Rosstat expected for 2024 and 2025 and what actually happened.
Rosstat forecast for 2026
Rosstat has a demographic forecast in three scenarios: low, medium and high. It is based on the results of the 2020 census and also excludes new regions. At the beginning of 2026 the scenarios give the following figures:
| Forecast scenario | Population on 1 January 2026, thousand people |
|---|---|
| Low | 144,813.9 |
| Medium | 145,159.3 |
| High | 145,923.2 |
The spread between the extreme scenarios is more than one million people. The medium scenario assumed that in 2025 the country would lose 472.5 thousand people: natural decline 693.2 thousand, migration gain 220.7 thousand. The full forecast by year up to 2046 is available in the population forecast dataset by scenarios.
Why the actual figure was higher than the forecast
On 1 January 2025 the medium scenario expected 145,631.8 thousand people, the high scenario 146,099.9 thousand. The actual estimate: 146,119.9 thousand. That is 488 thousand more than the medium scenario and 20 thousand more than the high.
The discrepancy accumulated over one year, 2024. Here is what the medium scenario projected and what actually happened:
| For 2024, thousand people | Medium forecast | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| Natural increase (decline) | −675.1 | −599.5 |
| Migration increase | +227.2 | +568.6 |
| Total change | −447.9 | −30.9 |
The main reason is migration: the inflow was 2.5 times larger than projected. Natural decline was also smaller than expected, by 75.6 thousand people. Instead of losing almost half a million, the country lost thirty thousand.
From this we can draw a practical conclusion. The figure "145 million in 2026" from the forecast should not be presented as a population estimate: the forecast was built on assumptions that reality has already altered. The actual estimate for 1 January 2026 will appear in Rosstat's new release, and on the website it will be placed in the same list.
What is known about 2025
By 2025 the site has timely data on births and deaths for the first months, by registration date at the civil registry office. Migration for 2025 is not included, therefore the overall total for the year cannot be summed from them.
January–March 2025 versus the same period 2024, thousand people:
| 2025 | 2024 | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Born | 288.8 | 300.3 | −11.5 |
| Deceased | 471.8 | 479.9 | −8.1 |
| Natural decline | −183.0 | −179.6 |
Births became fewer, deaths also, and the decline for the quarter changed hardly at all: 183 thousand versus 179.6. Per thousand residents the birth rate fell from 8.3 to 8.0, mortality from 13.2 to 13.1. The figures are open in operational data on natural population movement. How birth rate and natural decline changed over the years are shown in the summaries natural increase and migration increase.
Where People Live: Largest Regions
The most populous region on 1 January 2025 is Moscow: 13,274,285 people. Next is Moscow Oblast with 8,775,735 residents. Together the capital and the oblast amount to 22.05 million people, i.e. 15.1% of the country's population. One in seven Russians lives in the capital region.
Krasnodar Krai takes third place (5,842,238 people), overtaking St. Petersburg (5,652,922). Then comes a tight group of five regions with populations around four million: Sverdlovsk and Rostov Oblasts, Bashkortostan, Tatarstan and Tyumen Oblast together with Yugra and Yamalo‑Nenets.
The smallest populations are in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (41,906 people) and in Chukotka (47,778). Among regions that are not part of another subject, the least populated are Magadan Oblast (134,544) and the Jewish Autonomous Oblast (144,428). In Moscow alone there are more people than in the entire Ural, North‑Caucasus or Far‑Eastern districts.
By federal districts on 1 January 2025:
| Federal District | Population | Change in 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Central | 40,298,690 | +100,031 |
| Volga | 28,408,677 | −132,155 |
| Southern | 16,589,069 | −35,012 |
| Siberian | 16,492,894 | −74,249 |
| Northwestern | 13,876,648 | +36,296 |
| Ural | 12,282,737 | +20,442 |
| North‑Caucasian | 10,310,935 | +59,852 |
| Far‑Eastern | 7,860,278 | −6,066 |
The Southern and Siberian districts are almost equal: the difference is less than one hundred thousand people, and in 2024 Siberia lost twice as many. The Volga district loses the most of all.
Russia among the countries of the world
On average in 2023, Russia had 146.3 million inhabitants, while the world population is estimated by Rosstat at 8,092 million. Russia's share is 1.8%. In 2010 it was 2.0%: the world population grew by 1.07 billion over these years, while the Russian population hardly changed.
In Rosstat's table of world countries for 2023, more populous than Russia are China (1,410.7 million), India (1,392.0), the United States (334.9), Indonesia (278.7), Brazil (216.3) and Bangladesh (172.9). For Nigeria and Pakistan there are no data for 2023, but in the last year for which they exist, both countries were also larger than Russia. Immediately after Russia come Mexico (131.1 million) and Japan (124.5).
Japan is a good reference here: its population declines throughout the period, from 128.1 million in 2010 to 124.0 million in 2024. Mexico, on the other hand, grew from 113.7 to 132.3 million over the same time. The full table by country is available in the dataset on the average annual population of Russia and the countries of the world.
Who lives in Russia: gender and age
The latest data on gender and age are as of 1 January 2024: Rosstat temporarily does not publish data for 1 January 2025. At the beginning of 2024 the country had 67.9 million men and 78.2 million women, 46% and 54%. This ratio has been stable since 2004.
By age on the same date:
- younger than working age: 26.8 million people;
- of working age: 84.7 million;
- older than working age: 34.6 million.
More about the age pyramid in the article "Age composition of Russia's population", and about the gap between men and women in the article "Men and women in Russia".
Questions and Answers
How many people live in Russia in 2026?
Estimates for 1 January 2026 are not yet on the website. The latest Rosstat estimate: 146,119,928 people on 1 January 2025, excluding the DPR, LPR, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
What is the projected population of Russia for 2026?
Rosstat's demographic forecast at the beginning of 2026 gave a range from 144.81 to 145.92 million people, with a median scenario of 145.16 million. But already on 1 January 2025 the actual figure was higher than the high scenario, so the forecast understates the population.
Which region has the most people?
Moscow: 13,274,285 people on 1 January 2025. In second place Moscow Oblast, in third place Krasnodar Krai.
What rank does Russia hold in the world by population?
In Rosstat's 2023 table six countries have larger populations for that year: China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Brazil and Bangladesh. Nigeria and Pakistan also have larger populations in the most recent available years. Russia's share of the world population is 1.8%.
In Brief
On 1 January 2025 Russia had 146,119,928 people. Over 2024 the population changed little: natural decline of 599 thousand people was offset by migration inflow of 569 thousand. Rosstat's forecast expected a loss of 448 thousand people, so its 2026 figures, from 144.8 to 145.9 million, are based on assumptions that 2024 did not confirm. At the start of 2025 natural decline continued at the same pace as the year before. One in seven residents lives in Moscow or the Moscow region, and worldwide Russia accounts for about 1.8% of the population.