The Dynamics of the Population Structure of the South of Central Russia over a 130-Year Period: Migration Processes

This article assesses the dynamics of indicators characterizing marriage and migration parameters among the population of the south of Central Russia from 1890 to 2018. In the structure of marriages over the 130-year period, there was a significant decrease (1.6–2.2 times) in the share of isolocal marriages and a significant increase in the share of heterolocal marriages (by almost 11 times), while the size of the elementary population increased from the village level to the district/region level. From 1890 to 2018 the dynamics of isolocal marriages was more pronounced among the urban population and the dynamics of heterolocal marriages was more pronounced among rural residents. Over the 130-year period positive marital assortativity by place of birth of spouses decreased by 1.5 times without significant differences in the level and dynamics of marriage selectivity by place of birth of spouses between the urban and rural populations (except for the period of 1951–1953). A strong direct correlation was established between the level of marital assortativeness and the share of marriages concluded within one region and one district (r = 0.90, p < 0.05) and a negative one, on the share of heterolocal marriages (concluded between immigrants from different regions) (r = –0.90, p < 0.05).