Russia is one of the ten largest countries in the world in terms of population. The latest census in 2010 shows that more than 142 million people live in the country.
Organized compact living of people forms settlements. Their main types represented in Russia are a city, an urban-type settlement, a village, a village, a village, a farm, an aul. The formation of settlements is due to many reasons. Primarily, settlements appear in territories with the most favorable climatic and relief conditions, industrial and economic potential.
Russia is a country with rather severe climatic conditions, which, of course, primarily affects the formation of a system of settlements. The most densely populated territory of the Russian Federation is the central part.
Another factor affecting the resettlement is considered the industrial potential of the territories. Given the fact that the main mineral deposits in Russia are located in its northern territory, this part of the country is the most industrialized region with a rather high population density.
Consider the types of settlements in the Russian Federation.
Cities and villages
What types of settlements are there? All settlements in the Russian Federation are divided into urban and rural, which reflects the main type of employment.
The dominant population of the Russian Federation lives in the city. This fact can be explained by both social and material reasons. Cities are mainly centers of civilization with a developed infrastructure, the presence of cultural and social facilities, more comfortable compared to rural living conditions. It is these reasons that cause the outflow of the rural population from the hinterland and the almost extinction of small rural settlements.
Such a process of city domination over villages is called urbanization. Primarily, cities in Russia were industrial centers that allowed starving peasants to survive. The development of these centers led to their growth and, as a result, to an increase in the number of people living in them. Today, three quarters of the country's population lives in cities.
The main classification reflecting the types of settlements is the classification associated with the population.
Characteristics of cities by population
The total number of cities and urban-type settlements in Russia exceeds 2 thousand names, of which one thousand one hundred cities and more than two thousand urban-type settlements. For Russia, cities are considered to be settlements, the number of people living in which is at least twelve thousand people, of which more than 90 percent are employed in manufacturing, social services and services.
Moscow is the main city of the Russian Federation, its capital, where more than 10 million people live.
The population allows you to subdivide the city into the following types of settlements:
- Extra-large cities, or millionaire cities, whose population exceeds three million. In Russia, there are 2 such cities - Moscow and St. Petersburg.
- The largest cities, whose population is from one to three million. There are 13 cities in Russia with a population in the announced range, among them Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Omsk, Rostov-on-Don, Ufa.
- Large cities, whose population numbers from two hundred and fifty thousand to one million. There are more than forty such cities in Russia.
- Large cities, where the number of people living varies between one hundred and two hundred and fifty thousand. In the country, their number exceeded nine dozen.
- Medium-sized cities with fifty to one hundred thousand inhabitants. Their number exceeded one and a half hundred.
- Small towns and villages, the population of which does not exceed fifty thousand people.
The most intensive population growth occurs in large and largest cities, due to their industrial and economic progress.
City agglomerations
Speaking about urban types of settlements in Russia, it is also necessary to dwell on the concept of “urban agglomeration”. By this concept is meant the cooperation of medium-sized cities located close to a large city, which are united by labor, infrastructure, industrial and other types of ties.
Such medium-sized cities are called satellite cities. Satellite cities reduce population density in large ones.
The most important factor contributing to the emergence of agglomerations is the developed transport links between cities. In Russia, satellite cities were formed near Kuibyshev, Moscow, and St. Petersburg.
When agglomerations are combined, megacities are formed. In Russia today, megacities are not formed.
Structural characteristics of cities
The territorial structure of Russia allows us to distinguish the following types of urban settlements: federal, regional (regional, regional, republican, etc.) and regional significance.
The Constitution of the Russian Federation defines the cities of federal significance the city of Moscow, St. Petersburg and Sevastopol.
Cities of regional significance are considered to be settlements that perform the functions of an economic and cultural center characterized by developed industry and a population of more than thirty thousand people.
However, the quantitative indicators of the population in such cities are not exclusive, they are rather priority. A more significant criterion for classifying cities as cities of regional significance can be considered their social, economic indicators, achievements in the social, cultural sphere, historical uniqueness, long-term plans for increasing population growth and economic development. In addition to these criteria, to classify cities as cities of regional significance, cities with a regional structure must also be considered.
The requirements for the number of residents of cities of regional significance are individual in each subject of the Russian Federation. As a rule, these include urban settlements with a population of fifty thousand. On the territory of such cities, industry operates, the communal sphere is developed, educational, medical and commercial institutions, as well as cultural institutions, provide services.
Functional characteristics of cities
The following typological classification of the types of settlements involves their division, which is based on the functions performed by cities. Those functions include: political and administrative, industrial, transport, trade, scientific, military, recreational (health) functions. Depending on the number of functions performed by the city, they are divided into monofunctional and multifunctional.
Characteristics of cities by economic and geographical location
There is also a gradation of cities for the types of settlements according to their economic and geographical position:
- located near a mineral deposit;
- related to railway infrastructure;
- port;
- industrial transport.
Urban village
An intermediate link between a city and a village in Russia is an urban-type settlement. This intermediateness affects the quantitative composition of such settlements, as well as the sphere of employment.
The total number of urban-type settlements in the Russian Federation exceeds 1200 units. The number of people living in such villages can range from several tens to several thousand. The largest urban-type village in Russia is the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya, where more than 64 thousand people live.
There are several subspecies of urban-type settlements that are located outside the city. Such villages are considered: working villages where industrial facilities are located (population up to three thousand people); resort villages (population up to two thousand people); holiday villages.
Rural settlements are most widely represented in Russia. Their total number exceeds 150 thousand. A quarter of such points can be attributed to sparsely populated, less than 10 people live in them.
Despite the significant number of rural settlements, the number of people living in them is just over twenty percent of the total population of Russia.
This state of affairs is due to the low standard of living in the village, its poor technological equipment, which, in turn, leads to the migration of the population to cities.
The types of settlements in rural areas , depending on the size of their population, can be subdivided as follows:
- Large with a population exceeding five thousand.
- Large with a population of up to five thousand.
- Medium with a population of two hundred to one thousand people.
- Small with a population of up to two hundred people.
The main types of rural settlements represented in Russia
- The village is a large settlement in which there is or used to be a church. It serves as a local center.
- The village is a small town that historically did not have a church.
- The village is a new type of rural settlement that arose during the Soviet Union.
- Aul is a settlement where the ethnic population is represented: Adyghe, Abazin and Nogai.
- A farm is a settlement with an individual farm, consisting of farm buildings, the number of which does not exceed 10.
- The village is a settlement formed by the Cossacks. The largest village of the country is Kanevskaya of the Krasnodar Territory, its population is about 45 thousand people.
The types of settlements in Russia have been forming over the years. The organization of settlements is greatly influenced by natural and climatic factors. Agriculture is the main type of employment for people living in villages today. Favorable weather conditions play a major role here.
Given that in the vast majority of cases, villages are monofunctional, today the main types of settlements are cities.
Summarize
Having considered the topic “What types of settlements are formed on the territory of the Russian Federation”, it can be concluded that rural settlements are quantitatively prevailing, but the urban population density is much higher.