Russian statistics with commentary: economics, business, society stats data from Russia

Author: Dimitry Paranyushkin (on 07 Aug 2009)

Understanding
Russia through Numbers - Interesting Russian Statistics

National statistics on every aspect
of life in Russia with commentary explaining the importance
of this data.





Numbers can be truly inspiring, especially if they can tell
a story in an elegant and concise way.



We
looked through the dozens of online and offline sources to
bring you the latest in Russia's national,
economic, business, and travel statistics.



Each piece of information
is provided with a source and a commentary explaining its significance
in the Russian context.



We are
constantly updating and expanding this section to include more
interesting statistics, so if you have requests or suggestions,
please, post them in our Russia Talk
Lounge forums
.

National and Economic
Data - Russia, 2005

Population (as of 07/2003)
144 526 278
Population (in 2050, estimated by UN)
121 256 000
Average life expectancy men/women (2002):
62.5 / 73.1
Men per 1000 women (2002):
879
Three largest cities (2002):

Moscow

St. Petersburg

Novosibirsk
Population

8 376 000

4 619 800

1 396 800
GDP, per capita (2002):

36th place in the world, as of 2002
$7924 US
Comment: The Russian GDP is rising 6,5% per year (forecast for 2005
is 5.8%) to meet president Putin's objective of doubling
GDP in 10 years (before 2010).

Economically active population (EAP):

as of 2003
71 472 000 or 49.5% of all

annual growth: about 0.5%
Unemployment (2003):

Based on polls / Officially registered
8.6% / 2.2%

annual change: no
Largest employers (by sectors, in 2001):

Light, heavy, defence, manufacturing, pharmaceutical & other
industries:

Wholesale & retail:

Agriculture:

Education:

Construction:

Public service:

--- other ---

Science:

Culture & art:

Communication:
Percentage of total EAP



22.0%

14.9%

12.6%

9.0%

7.6%

7.0%

21.8%

1.9%

1.8%

1.4%
Comment: The
major problem is a small proportion of prospective sectors
in the economy, such as communication, science, consultancy,
information services, and a high share of extraction industries
in overall export.
Employed in small business (as of 2001): 7 435 800 (11.5% of EAP)

annual growth: apprx 2%
Small business share in total GDP (2004)*: approximately 4%

annual growth: app 30-40%
Comment: Another
major problem is a small share of small businesses in overall
economic activity. For example, in UK as much as 46.2%
(2003, SBS
UK
) are employed in small businesses (compared to 11.5%
in Russia) and while the turnover of small businesses in
UK reaches 38.3%, it is a mere 4% in Russia. The official
statistics might lower the real turnover details, as many
Russian businesses prefer to "hide" the real
figures to avoid taxes. However, there are estimates that
such businesses account to about 50% of the total number
of enterprises, so even in this case the share of small
business is very small.

 
Average salary (official data, 2005):*

per month, by sector:

Finance:

Oil & Gas industries:

Transport & communication:
8133 RUB ($290)

annual growth: about 25%

23300 RUB ($832)

21290 RUB ($760)

10730 RUB ($383)
Annual inflation rate: approximately 12%-18%
* Note,
that any indicators showing business turnover, official
salary details, etc. are lower than the real figures.
There are estimates showing that from 30% to 50% of salary
in Russia is paid "in envelopes" (thus, not
officially registered and taxed), and that about 50%
small businesses are not showing part or all of their
turnover.

 



Sources: population
statistics from WGeo,
economic statistics from Gosstat
(aggregate) and Ministry
of Economic Development (Russia)
and Small
Business Analytics (Giac)
.


 


Important Business
Statistics - Russia, 2005

Communication &
IT
Mobile phone subscribers (2005):

(% of total population = penetration)

(penetration among rural population)
86.5 Mln

58.9%

25%

Comment: The
data above is interesting because it somewhat reflects
the level of wellbeing in society.
Just
eight years ago mobile phones were still considered to
be a "luxury" item
in Russia. Nowadays, it is more of a practical item, but
people who live below poverty level would not
be able to afford one. So, the fact that 25% of traditionally
poor rural population have a mobile phone shows that at
least 1/4 of these people live above the poverty
level, which may sound quite bad, but still is positive
news
if you know the situation in Russian villages.

By the way, the highest mobile penetration in rural areas
is in the North-West region (St. Petersburg region, Novgorod
region, Karelia) - 37% - which is one of the indicators
showing
that the rural populations in these areas is better off.


 

Internet users in Russia (2005):

(% of total population)
12 Mln

8.3%
Computers owned:

(% of total population):
15 Mln

10.4%
Comment: One of
Russia's main problems is that it was for a long time isolated
from the outside world. The
internet is something that can solve this problem faster than
anything else. The more people, schools, regions, have access
to the internet, the easier it will be to integrate the
society and provide a free access to information to everybody.
The standard level of internet penetration in EU countries
is about 50%, in USA, Australia and New Zealand - 65%,
in Scandinavia - 70-80%. Eastern European countries have about
30% internet penetration.



Sources: mobile
telephone penetration stats from Sotovik.Ru




Travel Statistics -
Russia, 2005

Visits to Russia
in 2002 and 2004
From Country / Year:


2004

Tourist Visas

2004

Total Traveled
2002

Tourist Vsas
2002

Total Traveled
Note: in brackets - (x/y), where x - percent
of the total population traveling on tourists visas, y -
percent of the total population traveling to Russia.
Poland: 353 986
1 128 651
979 613 1 209 790
Germany: 351 099
567 204 287 255 493 267
China: 283 839 813 195 266 984 725 825
Finland: 242 816 1 092 328 229 863 1 161 233
USA:

(0.060% / 0.1%)
181 721 308 304 110 079 235 696
France:

(0.24% / 0.3%)
141 113 209 195 80 332 146 604
Italy: 123 397 192 039 101 675 154 319
Great Britain:

(0.19% / 0.37%)
115 622 214 961 67202 149 384
Ukraine: 84 320 6 685 527 260 053 8 229 840
Estonia: 74 165 521 097 44 936 386 537
Japan: 56 780 92 329 41 555 73 734
Spain: 51 395 69 096 44 462 58 557
Turkey:

(0.062% / 0.29%)
41 888 178 343 19 142 118 700
Netherlands:

(0.20% / 0.47%)
33 101 78 364 22 065 63 975
Austria:

(0.4% / 0.73%)
32 404 58 747 16 045 37 869
Sweden:

(0.4% / 0.83%)
31 892 73 684 20 601 55 652
Switzerland:

(0.32% / 0.71%)
24 369 50 139 13 572 25 495
Greece:

(0.17% / 0.29%)
18 735 32 835 8 697 25 829
Australia:

(0.097%
/ 0.12%)
14 189 23 546 8 202 16 672
Other Countries: n/a n/a n/a n/a
Total visits on business visas:   2 723 000   3 014 000
Total visits: 2 860 802 22 064 213 3 105 563 23 308 711

Comment: The
countries marked in red showed a steep rise of interest
in Russia during the last years, especially Greece, Australia,
Switzerland, Austria, Turkey, Great Britain, France.
The four countries at the top of the list (Poland, Germany,
China, Finland) have higher data, because majority of
travelers from these countries go to Russia for personal
reasons using tourist and business visas because they
are easier to obtain than the private ones.

Majority of travelers from France, Italy, Spain go to
Russia for tourism, while people from Netherlands, Switzerland,
Sweden, Australia, UK, USA go to Russia for business
reasons.

We can also see that currently the maximum ratio
of tourists who travel to Russia to the total country's
population
is 0.4% (Sweden, Austria, Switzerland). It is quite likely
that in the nearest future we will see the same process
happening in other countries, especially France,
UK, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Netherlands.

USA and Australia have less tourists coming to Russia
because of high airfares, however, it's quite likely
that in the nearest future the number of tourists from
USA
should increase by about 50% to reach Australia's tourists
to population ratio.

Russia currently has approximately the same number of
visits as UK. It takes the 7th place in world rankings
for visits annually, and the growth rates are comparable
to China. However, majority of visitors are from neighboring
CIS countries visiting friends, relatives, or taking
a part-time job, or so-called "border-shoppers" - people
who come to do cheaper
shopping
at the border.


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Sources: travel
stats from Federal Border Service, Russia and Federal Tourism Agency,
Russia


 








 

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