Zaporizhia Oblast

Geography

The area of the province is 27,183 km²; its population (estimated as at 1 January 2013) was 1,785,243.

Important cities include:

Berdyansk

Enerhodar – home of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant

Melitopol

Zaporizhzhia

History

The area corresponding approximately to the modern Zaporizhzhia Oblast - according to Herodotus - was called in the antiquity as the land of Gerrhos. This area was the burial place of "royal Scythians" where they buried their kings. The modern Zaporizhia Oblast was created as part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic on 10 January 1939 out of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. During the 1991 referendum, 90.66% of votes in the oblast were in favor of the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine. The SBU thwarted an attempt to blow up a railway line in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast, and found that the suspects were carrying maps and explosives on 8 July 2014. A survey conducted in December 2014 by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found 2.1% of the oblast's population supported their region joining Russia, 80.7% did not support the idea, and the rest were undecided or did not respond.

Points of interest

The following sites were nominated for the Seven Wonders of Ukraine.

Kamyana Mohyla, prehistoric "Stone Tomb" site (museum-preserve)

Khortytsia

Dniprostroy

Subdivisions

The Zaporizhzhia Oblast is administratively subdivided into 20 raions (districts) as well as 5 cities (municipalities) which are directly subordinate to the oblast government: Berdiansk, Enerhodar, Melitopol, Tokmak, and the administrative center of the oblast, Zaporizhzhia.

Note: Asterisks (*) Though the administrative center of the rayon is housed in the city/town that its named after, cities do not answer to the rayon authorities only towns do; instead they are directly subordinated to the oblast government and therefore are not counted as part of rayon statistics.

Demographics

According to the 2001 Ukrainian Census the population of the oblast was 1,929,171. Some 70.8% considered themselves Ukrainians, while 24.7% were Russians, the rest were of assorted nationalities including Bulgarians (1.4%), Belarusians (0.7%), and others (1.6%). Just under half the population (48.2%) considered the Russian language to be their native tongue, while a majority (50.2%) considered the Ukrainian language to be their native tongue.

Age structure

0-14 years: 13.5% (male 124,285/female 116,613) 15-64 years: 70.7% (male 598,849/female 662,838) 65 years and over: 15.8% (male 91,051/female 190,818) (2013 official)

Median age

total: 41.2 years male: 37.5 years female: 44.8 years (2013 official)

Education

679 daytime and 11 evening state schools plus 6 daytime schools that are non-budget supported secondary schools involved 271400 pupils in 2001. 22 classical schools, 8 Lyceums, a Sichovy Collegium and 54 education-breeding complex bodies aren't out of reach to gifted children. New style 38 complex kindergarten-schools work too.

Over 60,000 children develop their talents through out-of-school institutions. They attend 30 creative centres, 6 science-technical stations and four young naturalists stations, five tourists clubs, three training flotillas, 11 children's sport clubs and 20 sport schools. Extra-scholastic education system has such a unique body as the Small Academy of Science. Boys and girls work there in six main disciplines: physics-mathematics, chemistry-biology, history-geography, philology, industrial and information technologies. The Small Academy young members maintain close friendship relations with scientists of big institutes and universities. 26 youngsters became winners of the All-Ukrainian Academy contest, so Zaporizhzhia regional team gained the 1st place.

325 secondary schools, five classical schools, a Collegium and three complex-schools use the Ukrainian language. Nevertheless, the minorities have a free choice — 193 schools are Russian, a large Jewish school «Alef» works in Zaporizhzhia and smaller ones exist in other points, a Ukrainian-Bulgarian Lyceum is in Primorsky district. The Greek, Czech, Bulgarian languages are very popular in Yakimivsky, Berdyansky, Priazovsky and Melitopole rural districts. One may learn Hebrew, Yiddish, German, Polish, Tatar and other languages attending option courses anywhere.

Specialists keep on looking for an adaptive school model. 26 institutions develop the humanization process using new teaching technologies. The Khortitsky multi-profile teaching-rehabilitation centre has worked out methods for complete support of sanatorium-boarding-schools' children. Berdyansk is the town where a Regional boarding school for orphans works out active socialization programs.

42 institutions provide vocational education. This system distribute well-trained workers to regional industry and business. The list of specialities includes over 100 names. Vocational schools give courses for improving qualification in cooperation with unemployment centres. More than 1500 jobless persons get new professions every year due it.

The higher education system is the most flexible and advanced. Today 25 state-controlled technical colleges have I-II class rank and 8 higher institutions have III-IV class certificates. These are University and the Technical University, the Medical University, the Engineering Academy and the Institute of Law with Ministry of Internal Affairs in Zaporizhzhia City, the Pedagogical University, the Agricultural Academy in Melitopole and the Pedagogical Institute in Berdyansk. There are also five higher education private bodies — the Institute of Economics and Information Technologies, the State and Municipal Government Institute and the others. Over 65000 people are the students in this region. There are 212 Doctors of Science and 1420 Candidates of Science among their lecturers. Zaporizhzhia City is one of the biggest centres for foreigners' education in Ukraine.

The International Astronomical Union named two minor planets «Khadzhinov» and «Vikchemov» in honour of our countrymen who made a significant contribution in science and education.