According to official statistics, every 12th Russian resides in Moscow. And every fourth citizen of the country wants to live here. The capital of Russia is the largest metropolis in Europe, a city with great prospects and problems. How many people live in Moscow today? Let's try to answer this question.
How many people are in Moscow: estimates and assumptions
12 325 387 people - this is the official population of the Russian capital (as of the beginning of 2016). How many people are real in Moscow - no one can say for sure. The numbers sound different: from 14 to 20 million people.
Is it possible to calculate how many people are in Moscow? Or is this task deliberately impossible?
To calculate the real population in large cities, urbanists often use various criteria: norms of water and electricity consumption, passenger traffic in public transport, level of consumption of food products, etc. In particular, if we refer to the last criterion, the number of residents in Moscow can reach 18-20 million. This was announced in 2011 by the deputy of the Moscow City Council Anton Paleev.
In 2014, the city authorities planned to determine the real population of Moscow according to mobile operators. True, some demographers noted that such a methodology will not bring correct results, because one subscriber may be the owner of several SIM cards and gadgets.
According to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, between 25 and 40 million people live in the metropolitan area.
Metropolis with a difficult fate
The city of Moscow is associated with many bright prospects, a successful and prosperous life. But everything is not so smooth. The metropolis is suffering from a number of problems. Illegal migrants and xenophobia growing from year to year are some of the most important and especially acute.
Another point is the increase in the share of the “non-Russian population” in the city, which, according to some reports, exceeded the 15 percent threshold already in 2006. To date, the ethnic structure of the inhabitants of the capital's metropolis is extremely diverse and motley. A large number of Ukrainians, Tatars, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Tajiks, Moldavians and Jews live here. Migrant workers from the former Soviet republics, as a rule, they find themselves in the trade, services and construction sectors.
Finally
How many people live in Moscow in real life? The answer to this question is sought by scientists, demographers and officials. According to various sources, the real number of residents of a metropolis varies widely from 12 to 20 million people.
