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Migration as a Source of Population Growth in the Capital Megalopolises of Russia in the Period between 1989 and 2010 Censuses

  • DEMOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
  • Published:
Studies on Russian Economic Development Aims and scope

Abstract

This paper assesses the role of migration in forming the population of Moscow, Moscow oblast, St. Petersburg, and Leningrad oblast over the 22-year period between the censuses of 1989 and 2010. Data of the censuses and current vital statistics are used they are deemed more reliable than current migration statistics. Using indirect methods, the dynamics of age-sex structures, population aging, and the contribution of migrants to birth rates are estimated. It is shown that the specifics of migration in the main Russian megalopolises consist in a positive migration balance across almost all ages; shifts in the age structure occur in favor of the younger age groups of the able-bodied population, compensating for the effects of aging.

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Notes

  1. The listed data of current statistics of Rosstat, which are not publicly available, were provided to the author for the use by the Institute of Demography of the Higher School of Economics.

  2. Respondents add years to their age until it rounds up to more “beautiful” values. Sometimes this phenomenon is associated with the loss of documents or the lack of data on the date of birth. The age accumulation is more pronounced here than at any other age. See [8].

  3. Let us make a reservation that large cities with a wide area of migration are characterized by “erosion” of the titular nationality by other nationalities, including those introduced by international migration. One of the reasons for the “erosion” is that for children born in interethnic marriages the nationality of the parent who belongs to the titular nationality is often indicated. For details, see [9].

  4. Source: EMISS Rosstat, Gross Regional Product per Capita. https://www.fedstat.ru/indicator/42928.

  5. The median age is the age dividing the population of people into two halves equal in size: younger and older than this age.

  6. The General Directorate for Migration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, successor to the Federal Migration Service (FMS of the Russian Federation).

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 16-18-10324 A Man in Megalopolis: Economic, Demographic and Environmental Features) at the Institute of Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

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  1. Institute of Economic Forecasting, Russian Academy of Sciences, 117418, Moscow, Russia

    K. A. Doronina

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Translated by K. Lazarev

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Doronina, K.A. Migration as a Source of Population Growth in the Capital Megalopolises of Russia in the Period between 1989 and 2010 Censuses. Stud. Russ. Econ. Dev. 30, 93–101 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1075700719010052

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