According to the 2021 Russian census, the total population of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol was at 2,482,450 (Crimea: 1,934,630, Sevastopol: 547,820). This is up from the 2001 Ukrainian census figure, which was 2,376,000 (Autonomous Republic of Crimea: 2,033,700, Sevastopol: 342,451), and the local census conducted by Russia in December 2014, which found 2,248,400 people (Republic of Crimea: 1,889,485, Sevastopol: 395,000). According to the Ukrainian census, Perekop and Pervomaisky districts had a Ukrainian ethnic plurality, while the rest of Crimea had a simple or absolute majority of ethnic Russians.
History
The Crimean interior has been ethnically diverse throughout its recorded history, changing hands numerous times, while the south coast was held continuously for most of the last two millennia by various Roman (and Eastern Roman) states. The interior was dominated by a succession of Scytho-Sarmatian, Gothic, Hunnic, Turkic, Mongol and Slavic conquests. Its south coast was Greek speaking first as Greek colonies (7th or 6th century BC and following), then under the Bosporan Kingdom (480 BC - 63 BC), Romans (47 BC -330 AD) and their successor states, the Byzantine Empire (330 AD - 1204 AD), the Empire of Trebizond (1204 AD - 1461 AD), and the independent Principality of Theodoro (1461 AD - 1475 AD). In 1475 the region was conquered by the Ottoman Turks. During the late Middle Ages a few coastal cities were ruled by Italian city states. A number of Englishmen, fleeing England after the Norman Conquest, were said to have settled in Crimea with the Byzantine Emperor’s permission, and comprised a majority of his Varangian Guard until the Empire’s collapse.
The Crimean Tatars emerged as a Turkic-speaking ethnic group native to Crimea in the early modern period, during the lifetime of the Crimean Khanate, and by the annexation of the Crimean Khanate by the Russian Empire in 1783, they formed the clear majority of Crimean population. The colonization "New Russia" (the Novorossiysk Governorate, of which the later Taurida Governorate formed a part) at the end of the 18th century was led by Prince Grigori Potemkin who was granted the powers of an absolute ruler over the area by Catherine the Great. The lands were generously given to the Russian dvoryanstvo (nobility), and the enserfed peasantry mostly from Ukraine and fewer from Russia were transferred to cultivate what was a sparsely populated steppe. Catherine the Great also invited European settlers to these newly conquered lands: Crimea Germans, Poles in Russia, Italians of Crimea, and others. Crimea is geographically and demographically divided into three regions, the steppe interior, the mountains, and the coast. The Tatars were the predominant portion of the population in the mountainous area and about half of the steppe population, while Russians were concentrated most heavily in the Feodosiya district. Germans and settled in the Crimea at the beginning of the 19th century, receiving a large allotment and fertile land. Wealthy colonists later bought substantial portions of land, mainly in Perekopsky and Yevpatoria districts.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Italian emigration to the Crimea came from various Italian regions (Liguria, Campania, Apulia), with immigrants settling mainly in the coastal cities of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, as well as in Odesa, Mykolaiv, Sevastopol, Mariupol, Berdiansk and Taganrog. With the October Revolution of 1917, with which the Russian Empire became the Soviet Union, a bitter period began for minorities in Russia. Italians of Crimea therefore faced much repression. Between 1936 and 1938, during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge, many Italians were accused of espionage and were arrested, tortured, deported or executed. The few survivors were allowed to return to Kerch in the 1950s and 1960s during Nikita Khrushchev's administration. The descendants of the surviving Italians of Crimea currently account for people, mainly residing in Kerch.
By the 1897 Russian Empire Census, Crimean Tatars continued to form a slight plurality (35%) of Crimea's still largely rural population, but there were large numbers of Russians (33%) and Ukrainians (11%), as well as smaller numbers of Germans, Jews (including Krymchaks and Crimean Karaites), Bulgarians, Belarusians, Turks, Armenians, Greeks and Roma (gypsies).
The upheavals and ethnic cleansing of the 20th century vastly changed Crimea's ethnic composition. In 1944, 200,000 Crimean Tatars were deported from Crimea to Central Asia and Siberia, along with 70,000 Greeks and 14,000 Bulgarians and other nationalities."The Persecution of Pontic Greeks in the Soviet Union" (PDF)" By the latter 20th century, Russians and Ukrainians made up almost the entire population. However, with the fall of the Soviet Union, exiled Crimean Tatars began returning to their homeland and accounted for 10% of the population by the beginning of the 21st century.
Ethnicities and languages Crimean Gothic, an East Germanic language, became extinct around the 18th century, while the Crimean Goths diffused into other ethnicities much earlier on. Old English was also spoken by settlers from England, who were eventually absorbed into the Tatar population. According to Ukraine's 2001 census, the ethnic makeup of Crimea's population consisted primarily of the following self-reported groups: Russians (1.450 million, 60.4%), Ukrainians (576,600; 24.0%), Crimean Tatars (258,400; 10.8%), Belarusians (25,000; 1.5%), Armenians (10,000; 0.4%), and Jews (5,500; 0.2%).This combines the figures for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, listing groups of more than 5,000 individuals. ; Census YearRussiansCrimean Tatars (+ Tatars)UkrainiansBelarusiansArmeniansJews (+Karaites)OthersTotal population Number % Number % Number % Number % Number % Number % Number % Number17852.2%84.1%13.7%17954.3%87.6%1.3%0.6%2.3%3.9%137,000 18164.8%85.9%3.6%1.3%2.3%2.1%18354.4%83.5%3.1%1.5%2.0%5.5%18506.6%77.8%7.0%1.0%2.2%5.4%186428.5%50.3%6.5%7.0%7.7%1897These numbers exclude the population numbers for Berdyansky, Dneprovsky and Melitopolsky Uyezds, which were on mainland. See the administrative divisions of the Taurida GovernorateTaurida GovernateBerdyansk DistrictDneiper DistrictMelitopol DistrictCrimeaRussians404,46355,30342,180126,017180,963Ukrainians611,121179,177156,151211,09064,703Tatars196,8547705061,284194,294Belarusians9,7261,3233,0053,3402,058Armenians8,938201473738,317Jews55,4188,8896,29816,06324,168Other161,27059,0554,05426,07272,089Total Population1,447,790304,718212,241384,239546,592180,96333.11%194,29435.6%64,70311.8%2,0580.4%8,3171.5%24,1684.4%72,08913.2%546,5921926301,39842.2%179,09425.1%77,40510.6%3,8420.5%10,7131.5%45,9266.4%713,8231939558,48149.6%218,87919.4%154,12313.7%6,7260.6%12,9231.1%65,4525.8%1,126,4291959 858,27371.4%267,65922.3%21,6721.8%26,3742.2%1,201,5171970 1,220,48467.3%480,73326.5%39,7932.2%3,0910.2%25,6141.4%1,813,5021979Crimea - Dynamics, challenges and prospects / edited by Maria Drohobycky. Page 731,460,98066.9%5,4220.2%547,33625.1%45,000 (e)2.1%2,184,0001989Crimea - Dynamics, challenges and prospects / edited by Maria Drohobycky. Page 721,629,54267.0%38,3651.6%625,91925.8%50,0452.1%2,7940.1%17,3710.7%2,430,495200111,450,39460.4%258,89310.8%576,64724.0%35,1571.5%10,0880.4%5,5310.2%64,4992.7%2,401,209201421,492,07867.9%277,33612.6%344,51515.7%21,6941.0%11,0300.5%3,1440.1%2,284,7692021Russian Census of 2021 1,706,66276.4%284,52212.7%171,1607.7%10,5990.5%9,0160.4%2,4550.1%48,2572.2%2,482,4501. For comparison with prior censuses the results of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol were combined 2. The 2014 percentage is based on total number responding to the question on nationality (not total population). Census breakdown is Crimean Tatars 232,340 (10.6%), Tatars 44,996 (2.1%).
3. The Russian percentage in the 1864 census includes Ukrainians.
Other minorities are Black Sea Germans, Roma, Bulgarians, Poles, Azerbaijanis, Koreans, Greeks and Italians of Crimea. The number of Crimea Germans was 45,000 in 1941."A People on the Move: Germans in Russia and in the Former Soviet Union: 1763 – 1997 ". North Dakota State University Libraries. In 1944, 70,000 Greeks and 14,000 Bulgarians from the Crimea were deported to Central Asia and Siberia, along with 200,000 Crimean Tatars and other nationalities.
According to the 2001 census, 77% of Crimean inhabitants named Russian as their native language, 11.4% – Crimean Tatar, and 10.1% – Ukrainian. Of the Ukrainians in Crimea, 40% gave Ukrainian as their native language, with 60% identifying as ethnic Ukrainians while giving Russian as their primary language. 93% of Crimean Tatars gave Crimean Tatar as their native language, 6% were Russophone.Linguistic composition of population Autonomous Republic of Crimea. 2001 Ukrainian census In 2013, however, the Crimean Tatar language was estimated to be on the brink of extinction, being taught in Crimea only in around 15 schools at that point of time. Turkey has provided the greatest support to Ukraine, which has been unable to resolve the problem of education in the mother tongue in Crimea, by bringing the schools to a modern state.Crimean Tatar language in danger , Avrupa Times, 02/19/2013 Ukrainian was until 2014 the single official state language countrywide, but in Crimea government business was carried out mainly in Russian. Attempts to expand the usage of Ukrainian in education and government affairs have been less successful in Crimea than in other areas of the nation.
Currently two thirds of migrants into Crimea are from other regions of Ukraine; every fifth migrant is from elsewhere in the former Soviet Union and every 40th from outside of it. Three quarters of those leaving Crimea move to other areas in Ukraine. Every 20th migrates to the West.
The number of Crimean residents who consider Ukraine their motherland increased sharply from 32% to 71.3% from 2008 through 2011; according to a poll by Razumkov Center in March 2011, although this is the lowest number in all Ukraine (93% on average across the country).Poll: Most Crimean residents consider Ukraine their motherland, Kyiv Post (11 April 2011) Surveys of regional identities in Ukraine have shown that around 30% of Crimean residents claim to have retained a self-identified "Soviet identity".Soviet conspiracy theories and political culture in Ukraine:Understanding Viktor Yanukovych and the Party of Region by Taras Kuzio (23 August 2011)
Since the independence of Ukraine in 1991, 3.8 million former citizens of Russia have applied for Ukrainian citizenship.
In 2014 after Russian annexation of Crimea ocupational authorities conducted a census. According to the census result the population of the Crimean Federal District is 2.2844 million people. The ethnic composition is as follows: Russians: 1.49 million (65.3%), Ukrainians: 0.35 million (15.1%), Crimean Tatars: 0.24 million (12.0%). Official Ukrainian authorities and Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People claimed doubts that the results of population census in Crimea represent the facts.
A survey in May 2013, asked respondents what language they spoke at home: 82% Russian 10% Crimean Tatar 3% Russian and Ukrainian equally 3% Russian and another language equally 2% Ukrainian Note that the proportion of people in the survey who gave their ethnicity as Ukrainian was 20%, Crimean Tatar 15%.
Birth rate, death rate, total fertility rate, life expectancy Vital statistics for 2015 Births: 29 422 (12.8 per 1000) Deaths: 35 151 (15.3 per 1000) Vital statistics for 2020 Births: 31 105 (13.6 per 1000) Deaths: 29 890 (13.3 per 1000) Fertility rate
2014 2015 2020 Republic of Crimea 1.82 1.82 1.82 Sevastopol 1.65 1.82 1.82 Crimean Federal District 1.79 1.82 1.82
Life expectancy