Saratov Oblast

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Saratov Oblast (Russian: Сара́товская о́бласть, Saratovskaya oblast) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in the Volga Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Saratov. Major cities include Balakovo (pop. 200,600 as of 2002) and Engels (pop. 193,800).

Area: 100,200 km² (ranked 33rd): population: 2,668,310 (2002 Census).

[edit] Geography

[edit] Time zone

Saratov Oblast is located in the Moscow Time Zone (MSK/MSD). UTC offset is +0300 (MSK)/+0400 (MSD).

[edit] Administrative divisions

Main article: Administrative divisions of Saratov Oblast

[edit] Demographics

Total population (2002): 2,668,310 (ranked 19th)

Ethnic groups: Most of the ethnic Germans who used to live in the area have been repatriated. The German Consulate in Saratov closed in June 2004, stating that there were only 18,000 ethnic Germans left in the oblast (including 2,000 in the city of Saratov)

There were twenty recognised ethnic groups of more than two thousand persons each in Saratov Oblast at the time of the 2002 census. The national composition was reported to be: • Russians:(86.37%); • Kazakhs:(2.95%); • Ukrainians:(2.53%); • Tatars:(2.17%); • Armenians:(0.94%); • Mordovians:(0.62%); • Azerbaijani:(0.61%); • Chuvash:(0.60%); • Germans:(0.46%); • Chechens:(0.32%); • Lezgins:(0.20%); • Bashkirs:(0.15%); • Mari:(0.15%); • Moldovans:(0.14%); • Jews:(0.13%); • Roma:(0.10%); • Koreans:(0.10%); • Kurds:(0.09%); • Georgians:(0.08%); • Uzbeks:(0.08%), • and 0.75% others. • In addition, another 0.50% of the inhabitants declined to state their nationality on the census questionnaire.^[1]