In January 1979, the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

conducted its first census in nine years (since 1970). Between 1970 and 1979, the total Soviet population increased from 241,720,134 to 262,084,654, an increase of 8.4%.

Summary

Москва 1970 - panoramio - Andris Malygin (1)

As in 1970,

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

Ukrainians Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian. The majority of Ukrainians are Eastern Ort ...

Uzbeks The Uzbeks ( uz, , , , ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the wider Central Asian region, being among the largest Turkic ethnic group in the area. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, next to Kazakh and Karakalpak mino ...

, and Belarusians were the largest ethnic groups in the Soviet Union in 1979. Specifically, there were 137,397,089 Russians, 42,347,387 Ukrainians, 12,455,978 Uzbeks, and 9,462,715 Belarusians living in the Soviet Union in 1979. Meanwhile, the largest SSRs in the Soviet Union by population in 1979 were the

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

(with 137.6 million inhabitants), the

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...

(with 49.8 million inhabitants), the

Uzbek SSR Uzbekistan (, ) is the common English name for the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (Uzbek SSR; uz, Ўзбекистон Совет Социалистик Республикаси, Oʻzbekiston Sovet Sotsialistik Respublikasi, in Russian: Уз ...

(with 15.4 million inhabitants), the Russian-plurality

Kazakh SSR ; kk, Қазақ Советтік Социалистік Республикасы) *1991: Republic of Kazakhstan (russian: Республика Казахстан; kk, Қазақстан Республикасы) , linking_name = the ...

(with 14.7 million inhabitants), and the Byelorussian SSR (with 9.6 million inhabitants). The

Tajik SSR The Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic,, ''Çumhuriji Şūraviji Sotsialistiji Toçikiston''; russian: Таджикская Советская Социалистическая Республика, ''Tadzhikskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Resp ...

, Uzbek SSR, and

Turkmen SSR Turkmen, Türkmen, Turkoman, or Turkman may refer to: Peoples Historical ethnonym * Turkoman (ethnonym), ethnonym used for the Oghuz Turks during the Middle Ages Ethnic groups * Turkmen in Anatolia and the Levant (Seljuk and Ottoman-Turkish des ...

s were the fastest-growing SSRs between 1970 and 1979. During this time, the Tajik SSR grew by 31% while the Uzbek SSR grew by 30% and the Turkmen SSR grew by 28%. Overall, other parts of the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...

and

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

also experienced large growth between 1970 and 1979 while the slowest-growing SSRs during this time were the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, and the Byelorussian SSR (all of which only grew by 6% between 1970 and 1979). Between 1970 and 1979, the Soviet Union become more urban, with 62% of its total residents living in urban areas in 1979 in comparison to 56% in 1970. Indeed, there were 18 cities in the Soviet Union with over one million residents in 1979 (in comparison to 10 such cities in 1970). In addition to this, the male to female ratio also increased between 1970 and 1979. Indeed, while males only made up 46.1% of the Soviet Union's total population in 1970 , this figure increased to 46.7% by 1979. Overall, between 1970 and 1979, the total Soviet population increased from 241,720,134 to 262,084,654, an increase of 8.42%. Between 1970 and 1979, the

Soviet Jewish The history of the Jews in the Soviet Union is inextricably linked to much earlier Expansionism, expansionist policies of the Russian Empire conquering and ruling the eastern half of the European continent already before the Bolshevik Revolution ...

population fell by over 300,000, decreasing from 2,167,000 in 1970 to 1,833,000 in 1979. This fall was caused at least in part by the 1970s Soviet Union aliyah. Meanwhile, the

ethnic German , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

population in the Soviet Union increased from 1,846,317 in 1970 to 1,936,214 in 1979.

References

{{USSRCensus Ethnic groups in Russia

Census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

Censuses in the Soviet Union