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Russia: cities by population

By James Burfield, SEO consultant, Bath · Page updated · UN World Population Prospects

Russia has a population of 143,394,458 (UN estimate, 2026), with Moscow as its capital. The 50 largest of its 4,988 recorded towns and cities, ranked.

-2%
since 2000 (146,717,783)
-5%
projected by 2050 (136,132,775)
9
people per km²
19501975200020252050 103.4M 136.1M
UN estimates to 2026; the dashed line is the medium-variant projection to 2050, a forecast rather than a measurement. Source: World Population Prospects 2024.
Full UN series, 1950 to 2050
YearPopulation
1950103,392,360
1975134,136,098
2000146,717,783
2005144,597,884
2010143,934,465
2015145,307,616
2020146,371,299
2025143,997,393
2026143,394,458
2030 projected141,889,410
2050 projected136,132,775

Medium variant. Figures from 2026 onward are projections, not measurements.

Figures are the latest available in GeoNames (CC BY 4.0), which draws on national censuses of varying dates — treat them as recent, not same-year. Country totals are UN World Population Prospects 2024 (medium variant) where the UN lists the country separately; the handful it reports under a parent state keep a GeoNames figure and are marked as such. Sources & method.

Largest cities in Russia

#PlaceRegionPopulation
1MoscowMoscow10,381,222
2Saint PetersburgSt.-Petersburg5,351,935
3NovosibirskNovosibirsk Oblast1,612,833
4YekaterinburgSverdlovsk Oblast1,495,066
5Nizhniy NovgorodNizhny Novgorod Oblast1,259,013
6KazanTatarstan Republic1,243,500
7ChelyabinskChelyabinsk1,202,371
8OmskOmsk Oblast1,172,070
9SamaraSamara Oblast1,163,399
10Rostov-on-DonRostov1,130,305
11UfaBashkortostan Republic1,120,547
12KrasnoyarskKrasnoyarsk Krai1,090,811
13VoronezhVoronezh Oblast1,047,549
14VolgogradVolgograd Oblast1,013,533
15PermPerm Krai982,419
16KrasnodarKrasnodar Krai899,541
17SaratovSaratov Oblast844,858
18TyumenTyumen Oblast768,358
19TolyattiSamara Oblast702,879
20IzhevskUdmurtiya Republic648,213
21BarnaulAltai Krai632,372
22UlyanovskUlyanovsk626,540
23IrkutskIrkutsk Oblast623,869
24KhabarovskKhabarovsk618,150
25YaroslavlYaroslavl Oblast608,722
26VladivostokPrimorye604,901
27MakhachkalaDagestan596,356
28TomskTomsk Oblast574,002
29OrenburgOrenburg Oblast564,773
30KemerovoKuzbass558,973
31NovokuznetskKuzbass539,616
32Ryazan’Ryazan Oblast538,962
33AstrakhanAstrakhan Oblast533,925
34PenzaPenza Oblast523,553
35Naberezhnyye ChelnyTatarstan Republic509,870
36LipetskLipetsk Oblast509,735
37KirovKirov Oblast507,155
38CheboksaryChuvash Republic492,331
39TulaTula Oblast482,873
40KaliningradKaliningrad Oblast475,056
41KurskKursk Oblast448,733
42StavropolStavropol Kray433,931
43BryanskBryansk Oblast427,236
44TverTver Oblast420,065
45MagnitogorskChelyabinsk413,351
46IvanovoIvanovo Oblast406,113
47Nizhny TagilSverdlovsk Oblast381,116
48Ulan-UdeBuryatiya Republic360,278
49VladimirVladimir Oblast357,024
50Arkhangel’skArkhangelskaya349,742

Twenty years earlier: Russia in the 2005 World Gazetteer — population then 144,003,901.

Common questions

What is the population of Russia?
Russia has a population of 143,394,458, the UN World Population Prospects estimate for 2026. The UN's medium-variant projection for 2050 is 136,132,775 — a forecast, not a measurement.
What is the capital of Russia?
Moscow.

Go deeper

Moscow
The largest place we record in Russia: 10,381,222 people
Russia in 2005
The World Gazetteer's archive edition: 144,003,901 then
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