| 1989 All-Union Population Census | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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.svg) Soviet State Emblem | ||||
 Census Logo | ||||
| General information | ||||
| Country | Soviet Union | |||
| Results | ||||
| Total population | 286,730,819 ( 9.3%) | |||
| Most populous | Russian SFSR 147,400,537 | |||
| Least populous | Estonian SSR 1,572,916 | |||
The1989 Soviet census (Russian:Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989,lit. '1989 All-Union Census'), conducted between 12 and 19 January of that year, was the final census carried out in theSoviet Union. The census found the total population to be 286,730,819 inhabitants.[1] In 1989, the Soviet Union ranked as the third most populous in the world, above the United States (with 248,709,873 inhabitants according to the1990 census), although it was well below China and India.
In 1989, about half of the Soviet Union's total population lived in theRussian SFSR, and approximately one-sixth (18%) of them in theUkrainian SSR. Almost two-thirds (65.7%) of the population was urban, leaving the rural population with 34.3%.[2] In this way, its gradual increase continued, as shown by the series represented by 47.9%, 56.3% and 62.3% of 1959, 1970 and 1979, respectively.[3]
The last two national censuses (held in 1979 and 1989) showed that the country had been experiencing an average annual increase of about 2.5 million people, although it was a slight decrease from a figure of around 3 million per year in the previous intercensal period, 1959–1970. This post-war increase had contributed to the USSR's partial demographic recovery from the significantpopulation loss that the USSR had suffered during theGreat Patriotic War (the Eastern Front ofWorld War II), and before it, duringStalin'sGreat Purge of 1936–1938. The previous postwar censuses, conducted in 1959, 1970 and 1979, had enumerated 208,826,650, 241,720,134, and 262,436,227 inhabitants, respectively.[3]
In 1990, the Soviet Union was more populated than both the United States and Canada together, having some 40 million more inhabitants than the U.S. alone. However, after thedissolution of the Soviet Union in late 1991, the combined population of the 15 formerSoviet republics stagnated at around 290 million inhabitants for the period 1995–2000.
This significant slowdown may in part be due to theremarkable socio-economic changes that followed the dissolution, that have tended to reduce even more the already decreasingbirth rates (which were already showing some signs of decline since the Soviet era, in particular among the people living in the European part of the Soviet Union, beginning from 1988 to 1989).
Today[as of?] the population of the 15 former Soviet republics is around 299 million, with much of this growth attributed to the Central Asian states, which have increasing fertility, and in a smaller part Azerbaijan and Russia. Estonia, Belarus, Armenia and Georgia have also recorded some positive growth in the recent years. Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia and Lithuania are in continuous decline in population since early 1990s, although Ukraine's decline seemed to stabilise in early 2010s, before theRusso-Ukrainian war. Since 2019 Lithuania seems to appear some first signs of stabilisation around 2.8 million.
Rank | Soviet Republic | Population as of 1979 Census | Population as of 1989 Census[4] | Change | Percent change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Russian SFSR | 137,551,000 | 147,400,537 | 9,849,537 | 7.2% |
| 2 |  Ukraine | 49,755,000 | 51,706,742 | 1,951,742 | 3.9% |
| 3 |  Uzbekistan | 15,391,000 | 19,905,158 | 4,514,158 | 29.3% |
| 4 |  Kazakhstan | 14,684,000 | 16,536,511 | 1,852,511 | 12.6% |
| 5 |  Byelorussia | 9,560,000 | 10,199,709 | 639,709 | 6.7% |
| 6 |  Azerbaijan | 6,028,000 | 7,037,867 | 1,009,867 | 16.8% |
| 7 |  Georgia | 5,015,000 | 5,443,359 | 428,359 | 8.5% |
| 8 |  Tajikistan | 3,801,000 | 5,108,576 | 1,307,576 | 34.4% |
| 9 |  Moldavia | 3,947,000 | 4,337,592 | 390,592 | 9.9% |
| 10 |  Kirghizia | 3,529,000 | 4,290,442 | 761,442 | 21.6% |
| 11 |  Lithuania | 3,398,000 | 3,689,779 | 291,779 | 8.6% |
| 12 |  Turkmenia | 2,759,000 | 3,533,925 | 774,925 | 28.1% |
| 13 |  Armenia | 3,031,000 | 3,287,677 | 256,677 | 8.5% |
| 14 |  Latvia | 2,521,000 | 2,680,029 | 159,029 | 6.3% |
| 15 |  Estonia | 1,466,000 | 1,572,916 | 106,916 | 7.3% |
 Soviet Union | 262,436,000 | 286,730,819 | 24,294,819 | 9.3% |
Rank | Ethnicity | Population as of 1989 Census[5] | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | Total population | 285,742,511 | 100% |
| 1 | Russians | 145,155,489 | 50.8% |
| 2 | Ukrainians | 44,186,006 | 15.5% |
| 3 | Uzbeks | 16,697,825 | 5.8% |
| 4 | Belarusians | 10,036,251 | 3.5% |
| 5 | Kazakhs | 8,135,818 | 2.8% |
| 6 | Azerbaijanis | 6,770,403 | 2.4% |
| 7 | Tatars | 6,648,760 | 2.3% |
| 8 | Armenians | 4,623,232 | 1.6% |
| 9 | Tajiks | 4,215,372 | 1.5% |
| 10 | Georgians | 3,981,045 | 1.4% |
| - | Others | 35,292,310 | 12.4% |
