Russia held a population census in 2010. The Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) has published preliminary results of the last census recently.
According to statistics, Russia's population was 142,905,000 persons permanently residing in Russia. Compared to 2002 the population of Russia decreased by 1,6% (in 2002 there were 145 million 166,700 people). Russia's population decreased in 63 regions and increased in 20 regions of Russia.
The population of Moscow for 8 years (2002-2010) grew by 10,9%. According to statistics 11,514,000 people lived in Moscow in 2010.
The second largest town in Russia is St. Petersburg. Population growth rate in Petersburg is lower than in Moscow. From 2002 to 2010 the population of the city increased by 4% to 4.848 million people (3.4% of Russian population). 11,4% of Russian citizens live in Moscow and St. Petersburg in sum.
Population decline was due to natural loss of population (excess of deaths over births).
The proportion of urban population in 2010 was 73,7% (in 2002 it was 73,3%).
The largest population decrease occurred in the Far Eastern federal district, at 6%. The largest increase demonstrated regions of North Caucasus District - by 6,3%.
Sexual composition of the population since the previous census has changed slightly. The proportion of men was 46.3% (66.2 million), women - 53,7% (76,700,000) (in 2002 respectively 46,6% and 53,4%).