Six Decades of Depopulation Sprawl: Typology of Regions and Municipalities of Russia by Population Dynamics in 1959–2021

The high heterogeneity of the conditions of socioeconomic and demographic development within Russia has led to the emergence and consolidation of differences in population change. The article proposes a possible variant of the typology of territorial units of Russia based on the characteristics of demographic dynamics over a period of more than half a century (1959–2021 at the regional level and 1970–2021 at the local level). The typology made it possible to identify the main groups of territorial units united by common factors and trends in population change. The typology is based on observed combinations of periods of population growth and decline, which generally characterize the prevailing direction of change in its numbers. Based on data from All-Union and All-Russian population censuses, five main types of population dynamics have been identified, which are compared with six types of territories at the local level: areas of protracted depopulation; areas of “new development”; cities with a peak in population in 1989; areas with a peak in population in 2002; areas of natural growth; growing cities and suburbs. The use of such a typology seems primarily to be a tool for analyzing and organizing data, which will make it possible to compile a generalized description of historical changes in the demographic dynamics of Russia and help to break down the complex pattern of population fluctuations into their main components.