The Urban Population of the Chelyabinsk Region According to the Materials of the All-Union Census of 1959

Based on the materials of the All-Union censuses of 1939 and 1959, the article attempts to trace the dynamics in the development of the urban settlement network and the urban population of the Chelyabinsk region, to determine the specifics of the ongoing urbanization of the region. In the course of the study, the authors concluded that due to the evacuation of enterprises and workers during the Great Patriotic War, the Chelyabinsk Region maintained high rates of urban population growth and by the end of the 1950s, the degree of urbanization was equal to the Sverdlovsk region — the proportion of citizens rose to 76%. The urban settlement network grew primarily due to cities, 91.5% of the urban population of the region lived in them, the majority of urbanized residents of the Chelyabinsk Region (69.5%) were concentrated in medium and large cities. The study of the sex and age structure of the urban population allowed us to draw the following conclusions. First, the 1959 census revealed an increased gender imbalance in favor of women, but among people aged 0 to 24, there was an overweight of men. Secondly, there were age disparities, and there are three demographic pits. The Great Patriotic War played a special role in the sharp decline in the number of citizens aged 10-19 and 35-44. Thirdly, the urban population of the region remained young: people under the age of 30 accounted for over 59%, pensioners — 6.1%. The share of able-bodied citizens (61.4%) made it possible to solve the economic problems facing the region.