Household income and expenditure: average household size (2004): 2.8; income per household: RUB 52,400 (US$1,692); sources of monetary income (2006): wages 66.4%7, transfers I 3.2%, self-employment I 1.2%, property income 7.2%, other 2.0%; expenditure (2002): food 41.7%, clothing 13.3%, housing 6.2%, furniture and household appliances 5.7%, alcohol and tobacco 3,2%, transportation 2,7%. Selected balance of payments data. Receipts from (US$'000,000) tourism (2005) 5,466; remittances (2006) 3,308; foreign direct investment (FDI; 2001-05 average) 8,842. Disbursements for (US$'000,000): tourism (2005)
17,804; remittances (2006) 11,438; FDI {2001-05 average) 8,541.
Foreign trade8
Imports (2006): US$137,548,000,000 (machinery, apparatus, and transportation equipment 47.7%; chemicals and chemical products 15,8%; food, beverages, and tobacco 15.7%; nonferrous metals and iron and steel 7.7%). Major import sources (2006): Germany 13.4%; China 9.4%; Ukraine 6.7%; japan 5.7%; Belarus 5.0%; USA 4.7%; France 4.3%; Italy 4.2%; Kazakhstan 2.8%. Exports (2006): US$301,976,000,000 (fuels and lubricants 65.9%; nonferrous metals and iron and steel 16.4%; machinery, apparatus, and transportation equipment 5.8%; chemicals and chemical products 5,6%; wood and paper products 3.1%).
Major export destinations (2006): The Netherlands 11.9%; Italy 8.3%; Germany 8.1%; China 5.2%; Ukraine 5.0%; Turkey 4.8%; Belarus 4.3%; Switzerland 4.0%; Poland 3.8%; UK 3.4%; Finland 3.0%; Kazakhstan 3.0%.
Transport
Railways (2005): length (20072) 85,000 km; passenger- km 171,600,000,000; metric ton-km cargo 1,858,000,000,000. Roads (20072): total length 854,000 km (paved 85%). Vehicles (2002): passenger cars 22,342,000; trucks and buses (1999) 5,021,000. Air transport (2006-07): passenger-km 97,510,000,000; metric ton-km cargo 2,980,000,000,
Communications
Daily newspapers (20049): circulation 15,075,000 Television (2003): receivers 50,599,000 Telephones (2005): landlines 40,100,000 Mobile telephones (2005l0): 120,000,000 Personal computers (2005): 17,400,000 Internet (2006): users 25,689,000 Broadband (200610): 2,900,000
Education (2006-07)
Primary (age 6-13) and secondary (age 14—17): schools 61,042; teachers 1,537,000; students 14,798,000; student/teacher ratio 9.6, Vocational, teacher training: schools 2,847; teachers 148,000; students 2,514,000; student/teacher ratio 18.3. Higher: schools 1,090; teachers 409,000; students 7,310,000; student/teacher ratio 17.9,
Health
Health (2006): physicians 690,ООО2 (I per 206 persons); hospital beds 1,575,ООО2 (I per 90 persons); infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births 10.2. Food (2005): daily per capita caloric intake 3,363 (vegetable products 79%, animal products 21%); 170% of FAO recommended minimum requirement.
Military
Total active duty personnel (November 2006): 1,027,000 (army 38.5%, navy 13.8%, air force 15.6%, strategic deterrent forces 7.8%, command and support 24.3%)",
Military expenditure as percentage of GDP (2005): 4,1%; per capita expenditure US$217.
Internet resources for further information
Federal State Statistics Service http://www.gks.ru/eng/ default.asp
Central Bank of the Russian Federation http://www.cbr.ru/eng Notes
Based on 86 federal districts as of mid-July 2007.
January I.
Muslim population may be as high as 16%.
ShT'i make up c. 8% of all Muslims.
Mostly based on a claimed membership of 28,000,000 in the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia, the successor to the former labour movement.
Metal content,
Includes unreported wages and salaries.
Imports cost, insurance, and freight, exports free on board.
Refers to top 20 dailies only.
Subscribers.
An additional 415,000 personnel in paramilitary forces include railway troops, special construction troops, federal border guards, interior troops, and other federal guard units.
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Russia: physical and geographical
THE PLACE AND THE PEOPLE
Overview
The Russian Federation stretches over a vast expanse of eastern Europe and northern Asia. Once the pre-eminent republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Russia became an independent country after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Russia is a land of superlatives. By far the world's largest country, it covers nearly twice the territory of Canada, the second-largest. It spans 11 time zones and incorporates a great range of environments and landforms, from deserts to semi-arid steppes, to deep forests and Arctic tundra. Russia contains Europe's longest river, the Volga, and largest lake, Ladoga, and it is home to the world's deepest lake, Baikal; it also registers the world's lowest recorded temperature outside the North and South poles.
The inhabitants of Russia are diverse. Most are ethnic Russians, but there are also more than 120 other ethnic groups present, speaking many languages and following disparate religious and cultural traditions. Most of the
Russian population is concentrated in the European portion of the country, especially in the fertile region surrounding Moscow, the capital. Moscow and St Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) are the two most important cultural and financial centres in Russia and are among the most picturesque cities in the world. Russians are also populous in Asia, however; from the seventeenth century, and particularly throughout much of the twentieth century, a steady flow of ethnic Russians and Russian-speaking people moved eastward into Siberia, where cities such as Vladivostok and Irkutsk now flourish.
Russia's climate is extreme, with forbidding winters that have several times famously saved the country from foreign invaders. Although the climate adds a layer of difficulty to daily life, the land offers a generous source of crops and materials, including vast reserves of oil, gas, and precious metals. That richness of resources has not translated into an easy life for most of the country's people, however: much of Russia's history has been a grim tale of the very wealthy and powerful few ruling over a great mass of their poor and powerless compatriots. Serfdom endured well into the modern era; the years of Soviet communist rule (1917-91), especially the long dictatorship of Joseph Stalin, saw subjugation of a different and more exacting sort.