Area 100,800 km² | Federal district Southern Established September 13, 1937 Area rank 32nd Clubs and Teams FC Rostov, Rostov-Don | |
 | ||
Colleges and Universities Southern Federal University, Don State Technical University, Rostov State Medical, Rostov State University, Rostov State Transport Points of interest Birth house of Anton Chekhov, Rostov‑on‑Don Zoo, Alferaki Palace, Taganrog Museum of Art, Park im Oktyabrskoy Revolyutsii | ||
Rostov Oblast (Russian: Росто́вская о́бласть, Rostovskaya oblast; [rɐˈstofskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ]) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in the Southern Federal District. The oblast has an area of 100,800 square kilometers (38,900 sq mi) and a population of 4,277,976 (2010 Census), making it the sixth most populous federal subject in Russia. Its administrative center is the city of Rostov-on-Don, which also became the administrative center of the Southern Federal District in 2002.
Contents
Map of Rostov Oblast, Russia
Geography
Rostov Oblast borders Ukraine and also Volgograd and Voronezh Oblasts in the north, Krasnodar and Stavropol Krais in the south, and the Republic of Kalmykia in the east.
It is within the Russian Southern Federal District.
Rivers and lakes
The Don River, one of Europe's largest rivers, flows through the oblast for part of its course. Lakes cover only 0.4% of the oblast's area.
Demographics
Population: 4,277,976 (2010 Census); 4,404,013 (2002 Census); 4,308,654 (1989 Census).
2009 - 1.38 | 2010 - 1.38 | 2011 - 1.39 | 2012 - 1.51 | 2013 - 1.52 | 2014 - 1.61 | 2015 - 1.63 | 2016 - 1.60(e)
Ethnic groups: Residents identified themselves as belonging to 157 different ethnic groups, including twenty-seven of more than two thousand persons each. The most important ethnicities are the 3,795,607 ethnic Russians (90.3%); the 77,802 ethnic Ukrainians (1.9%); the 110,727 ethnic Armenians (2.6%). Other important groups are the 35,902 Turks (0.9%); 16,493 Belarusians (0.4%)); 13,948 Tatars (0.3%); 17,961 Azeris (0.4%); 11,449 Chechens (0.3%); 16,657 Roma (0.4%); 11,597 Koreans (0.3%); and 8,296 Georgians (0.2%). There were also 76,498 people (1.8%) belonging to other ethno-cultural groupings. 76,735 people were registered from administrative databases, and could not declare an ethnicity. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group.
Religion
According to a 2012 official survey 49.5% of the population of Rostov Oblast adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church, 6% are unaffiliated generic Christians, 1% are either Orthodox Christian believers who don't belong to church or are members of other (non-Russian) Orthodox bodies, 1% are Muslims, and 1% are adherents of the Slavic native faith (Rodnovery) movement. In addition, 26% of the population declares to be "spiritual but not religious", 12% is atheist, and 3.5% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question.
Economy
Major industries of Rostov Oblast are agriculture, agricultural industry, food processing, heavy industry, coal and automobile manufacture.