According to the All-Russian classifier of territories of municipalities (OKTMO), there are more than 155 thousand different settlements in Russia. Settlements are separate administrative units that involve the settlement of people within a built-up area. An important condition for designating such a territory as a settlement is the permanence of residence on it, albeit not throughout the year, but during the seasonal period.
Problems of determining and comparing settlements
For an uninitiated person, all settlements are divided into cities and villages. However, their classification is much more diverse. In the modern world, it is difficult to independently understand all the intricacies of distribution between territories. City boundaries as they expand, create new districtseroded, absorbing adjacent villages, agricultural land. What yesterday was part of another region, today is subject to new administrative centers.
After all, the classification concerning the division of populated and equipped territories according to the principle "city / village" is the most common not only in our country, but throughout the world. The complexity of choosing criteria is due to various factors, this is especially clearly seen in sparsely populated areas.
What is a city?
The city is much easier and simpler to define. Such settlements are the largest settlements of people within a single territory. At the same time, a city is a settlement, the population of which is not employed in agriculture and industries related to it. Typical urban occupations are industry, trade, science, and culture. In addition, such administrative units have their own distinctive, purely individual features.
What makes the city stand out, what makes it special?
Most often this is a large population density of people. On average, this number exceeds several tens of thousands per square kilometer. To provide all people with housing, it is necessary to create special housing, which is also typical for the city. In recent years, urban architecture has tended to look for new opportunities in order to fit the maximum possible number of residential premises on the smallest possible piece of land. Thus, cities are growing not only in breadth, but alsoup.
Urban settlements are also the concentration of the cultural, political, legal life of a country or a separate region. Most often this is due to the fact that it is in the city that the administrative and economic hub of a certain region is located. This contributes to the creation of a kind of center that brings together the best specialists, technologies, institutions and resources.
Is urbanization as good as it seems at first glance?
The concentration of opportunities in one place leads to what the authorities are trying to fight, but, perhaps, so far without success. This is a rapid decline in the population in rural areas. This happens for various reasons - a high mortality rate, despite the fact that the birth rate is very low. The outflow of young people to cities also provokes a lack of work, a cultural environment, places of recreation, a low standard of living and an absolutely destroyed infrastructure.
Differences of cities, their types by the number of inhabitants
City to city is different. The distance between settlements related to cities can be several tens and hundreds of kilometers. This uneven urbanization is especially clear in such a large country as Russia. And if in the North-Western, Central regions about 80% of the population lives in large settlements, then in Altai, Ingushetia, Kalmykia - no more than 40%.
The life of some citizens revolves around the industrial zone, others are focused on administrative matters, there are so-called military camps. Main field of activityof such settlements is the service of a military unit located in the immediate vicinity of the city. Such settlements are most often closed-type settlements, their residents are recorded not by hundreds and tens, but by units.
| Big cities | Super Large | From 500 thousand people |
| Large | Up to 500 thousand people | |
| Mid-sized cities | Welterweight | From 50 to 100 thousand people |
| Average | From 20 to 50 thousand people | |
| Small towns | Small | From 10 to 20 thousand people |
| Urban-type settlements | Up to 10 thousand people |
However, the share of cities among the total number of settlements is not so high. About 75% of the total population of the country lives in cities (this trend is common throughout the world), but their number in relation to villages is many times less. For example, according to the state register, there are a little more than a thousand in the Russian Federation, while the total number of villages and villages exceeds a hundred thousand.
Division of villages by type
Rural settlements are very difficult to classify. Settling in different regions of the country took place in different ways. Historically, some areas indue to proximity to trade routes, natural resources, industrial enterprises are more densely populated. The distance between settlements in these regions is small. The districts are clearly divided, and each has its own structure, subordination to the center, management hierarchy.
In general, rural settlements can be divided according to two main features - the number of people living and the scope of employment.
My village, I'm proud of you
A village is not always a small settlement with a dozen households. Places where functioning enterprises are located, agriculture, social infrastructure are developed, can have up to 10 thousand people. Such villages are equipped with good roads, their own educational, cultural, medical institutions, post office and retail outlets. Most often, this is an economically developed area, the settlement of which belongs to it and is not in an abandoned state, in the future it may qualify for even greater enlargement.
Since the classification of settlements depending on the number of people living in them is not legally fixed in Russia, it happens that villages can be larger than small towns.
Differences between a village and a village
The borders of settlements that fall under the definition of "village" are very small. Most often they do not go beyond one or two dozen households, and the total number of inhabitants does not exceed several hundred. In such places, the life of people is not very well established. The nearest shops, feldsher points can be located ona distance of several kilometers. At the same time, in such settlements there are often no elementary conditions for life - mobile communications, the Internet, gas, normal transport interchanges. The state is really trying to improve life in the most remote corners of the country, but the main problem remains the outflow of young people, the able-bodied population from the villages. Thus, over the past few decades, according to the state register, 14 settlements have received the status of "former settlement" due to the absolute departure of residents.
What is a farm?
One of the smallest formations that fall under the status of separate villages are farms. Most often, this is a remote group of houses or even one yard. People in them have land, livestock. They can be employed in forestry, water management, cultivate agricultural land. There may sometimes not be a great distance between settlements of larger sizes and a farm. They can be located across a forest, a river, united by one road, but still being different administrative units.
In addition, there are many other types of settlements that specialize in certain activities. For example, dacha cooperatives, resort towns, sanatoriums, forestries, railway stations and even roadblocks.
There are also settlements characteristic of some nationalities, reflecting the mentality and culture of the historical territory (village, ulus, somon, village).
