Population censuses of the Russian Empire, USSR, 15 new independent states  


The First General Census of the Russian Empire of 1897.
Breakdown of population by mother tongue and districts* in 50 Governorates of the European Russia

Select a region from the list below**


Language or group of languages

Language or group of languages

Males

Females

Both sexes ***

 TOTAL

 

226130

229689

455 819

 Russian

 Great Russian

134419

138883

273 302

 Ukrainian

88990

88386

177 376

 Belarusian

735

622

1 357

 Total

224 144

227 891

452 035

 Polish

 

65

57

122

 Other Slavic languages

 Czech

45

37

82

 Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian

   

 Bulgarian

2

0

2

 Lithuanian-Latvian dialects

 Lithuanian

2

0

2

 Samogitian

   

 Latvian

7

8

15

 Romance languages

 Moldavian and Romanian

38

41

79

 French

2

5

7

 Italian

   

 Spanish and Portuguese

   

 German

 

1195

1141

2 336

 Other Germanic languages

 Swedish

   

 Norwegian and Danish

   

 Dutch

   

 English

   

 Other Indo-European dialects

 Greek

54

34

88

 Albanian

   

 Armenian

105

77

182

 Persian

   

 Tajik

   

 Talysh

   

 Tat

   

 Kurdish

   

 Ossetic

   

 Hindu

   

 Gipsy

167

157

324

 Pashto

   

 Jewish

 

5

2

7

 Kartvelian dialects

 Georgian

   

 Imereti

   

 Mingrelian

   

 Svan

   

 Dialects of Caucasian hill-peoples

 Kabardian

   

 Circassian

   

 Abkhaz

   

 Chechen

   

 Ingush

   

 Kistin

   

 Avar-Andi

   

 Dargin

   

 Kyurin

   

 Udi

   

 Kasi-Kumuk and other Lezgian dialects

   

 Lezgian with no breakdown

   

 Finnish dialects

 Finnish

   

 Votyak

   

 Karelian

   

 Izhorian

   

 Chud

   

 Estonian

   

 Lappish

   

 Zyrian

   

 Permyak

   

 Mordovian

1

0

1

 Cheremis

   

 Vogul

   

 Ostyak

   

 Hungarian

   

 Turkish-Tatar dialects

 Tatar

41

16

57

 Bashkir

   

 Misher

   

 Teptyar

   

 Chuvash

   

 Karachay

   

 Kumyk

   

 Nogai

   

 Turkish

   

 Karapapak

   

 Turkmen

   

 Kyrgyz-Kaissak

   

 Kara-Kirghiz

   

 Kipchak

   

 Kara-Kalpak

   

 Sart

   

 Uzbek

   

 Taranchi

   

 Kashgar

   

 Turkic dialects with no breakdown

   

 Yakut

   

 Mongolian-Buryat dialects

 Kalmyck

210

198

408

 Buryat

   

 Mongolian

   

 Dialects of the other Nothern nations

 Samoyed

   

 Tungus

   

 Manchu

   

 Chukchi

   

 Koryak

   

 Kamchadal

   

 Yukaghir

   

 Chuvanian

   

 Eskimo

   

 Gilyak

   

 Ainu

   

 Aleut

   

 Yenisei Ostyak

   

 Languages of civilized peoples of the Far East

 Chinese

   

 Korean

   

 Japanese

   

 Other languages and dialects

 Arabic

   

  Aisor (Syro-Chaldean)

   

 Other languages

   

 Persons not specified mother tongue

 

   

 Remainder (****)

 

47

25

72

* The territorial units used in the Russian Empire in 1897 are translated here as follows: уезд (uyezd) - distriict, губерния (guberniya) - governorate, градоначальство (gradonachalstvo) - city municipality, военное губернаторство (voyennoye gubernatorstvo) - military governorate. The names of cities are translated according the usual dictionaries, if not found - taken from Wikipedia, if not found in both sources - transliterated.
** Here the language composition of population is given for the districts of the Russian Empire. In the census results the whole set of languages was published, however this DW page displays only the languages spoken by at least 100 persons of one sex (mainly males) in each governorate. Russian, Urkanian, and Belorussian are given in all regions.
*** Calculations by Demoscope Weekly
**** The last line "Remainder" is formed from the languages spoken by the population sized less than 200 at a territory. The census results published have no such line since all the languages were given including the languages spoken by only 1 person.
***** This and similar lines refer to the population of a territory without population of the district's center if it is not an urban settlement.

See also Перепись населения 1897 г. Распределение населения по родному языку, губерниям и областям (Population census of 1897. Breakdown of population by mother tongue, governorates, and oblasts).

Source:

  • Первая Всеобщая перепись населения Российской Империи 1897 г. Таблица XIII. Распределение населения по родному языку. Т.Т.1-50. С.-Петербург: 1903-1905 (The First General Census of the Russian Empire of 1897. Table XIII. Breakdown of population by mother tongue. Volumes 1-50. Saint-Petersburg: 1903-1905)
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