129 small towns in Russia, home to 3.4 million people, may disappear against the backdrop of negative demographic trends and a decline in population employment. This is reported by Izvestia, citing a study by RANEPA experts.
The newspaper reports that over 3.4 million people reside in cities with populations under 50,000, a number that has decreased by 314.5 thousand over the past decade. The most significant population decline was recorded in coal, metallurgical, and timber cities. The authors of the study believe that the Bryansk, Novgorod, Kirov regions, and several settlements in the Krasnoyarsk Territory are most at risk.
The authors of the study argue that such cities lack sufficient internal resources for development, and the large number of small towns also makes it challenging to distribute external resources evenly. The reasons for the overall sharp decline in the population of small towns are considered to be a decrease in employment and a decrease in the number of representatives of small and medium-sized businesses.
The results of the study showed that more than 100,000 people are needed for the development of urban settlements.
