One of the young cities in Russia - Novy Urengoy - today shows stable growth and economic well-being. The gas capital of the country is distinguished by the specific characteristics of its population, this is due to the history, climate and characteristics of activities in the region.
Geography and climate
Novy Urengoy is located in the Yamalo-Nenets district of the Tyumen region. The area of the city is 221 sq. km. The gas capital is located 2350 km from Moscow and 450 km from Salekhard. The city is located just 60 km from the Arctic Circle and lies on the left bank of the Pur River, at its confluence with the Evo-Yahu River. The settlement is spread out on a flat shore. The Tamchara-Yakha and Sede-Yakha rivers flow through its territory, which divide the city into northern and southern parts. The lands around Urengoy are very swampy, and the expansion of the city's borders is difficult, but it still continues to gradually win back pieces of land from nature.
The population of Novy Urengoy lives in places with a harsh climate. Two climatic zones converge here: temperate and subarctic. The average annual temperature in the city is minus 4.7 degrees. The long, 9-month-old winter is very severe. The thermometer can drop to minus 45. In winter, there are often storms and snowstorms. The average winter temperature is around minus 20 degrees. Summer lasts only 35 days, while the air warms up to an average of +15 degrees. The city is located in the permafrost zone, in summer the soil thaws only to a depth of 1.5-2 meters. The shortest daylight hours in Novy Urengoy last just over an hour.
History
Novy Urengoy, whose population lives in such difficult climatic conditions, appeared on the map in 1973. But before that, there was the village of Urengoy, not far from which a gas field was discovered in 1966. The settlement existed since 1949, the builders of the railway from Salekhard to Igarka lived in it. However, with the death of Stalin, this project stalled, and for some time the houses stood uninhabited. Then geologists settled in dilapidated barracks. And only with the beginning of the development of the field, the population begins to increase.
The first inhabitants of the new city were its builders, who set up a camp 100 km from the village of Urengoy and called it "New Urengoy". First of all, the workers carried out gas heating, and then began to build the first multi-storey buildings. Then a power plant, a bakery appeared, an airport was built in a year, and a railway line reached from Surgut two years later. In 1978, commercial gas production began. Large volumes of extraction of "bluefuel" ensured the rapid development of Novy Urengoy.
Already in 1980, the settlement received the official status of a city. In 1981, the city was awarded the title of the All-Union Komsomol construction site, many young people from all over the country came here. In 1983, the Urengoy - Pomary - Uzhgorod gas pipeline was launched, which opened the way for Russian gas to Western Europe. In the 90s, private capital began to be invested in the region, and this had a positive effect on the development of the city. In 2004, the city "swallowed" the villages of Korotchaevo and Limbyakha. Since that time, Novy Urengoy has become the longest city in the world - its length is more than 80 km.
Administrative-territorial division
The official division of the city was carried out according to a simple geographical principle, the city includes such areas as the Northern Residential, Northern Industrial Zone, Southern Residential, Western Industrial Zone and Eastern Industrial Zone. The population of Novy Urengoy conditionally divides the city into two parts: "south" and "north". In the districts, such constituent components as Student, Optimist, Creators, Star, Olympic, Rainbow, Nadezhda, Druzhba, Yagelny microdistricts are distinguished. In total, today there are 32 microdistricts in the city, as well as 5 villages.
Urban infrastructure
The city of Novy Urengoy was built according to modern standards, there are wide avenues, good roads. The population of Novy Urengoy is fully provided with the service enterprises necessary for life andcultural institutions. There are 7 branches of higher educational institutions, 23 secondary educational institutions. The cultural needs of the population are satisfied by an art museum and several cinemas. Transport links are well developed here, this is a city in which there are almost no traffic jams. The airport, railway and river transport provide a good connection of the region with other parts of the country. The population of Novy Urengoy is fully provided with medical care; there are 11 medical institutions in the city with a good level of qualification of doctors. Sports and physical education are held in high esteem among the residents of the city, 17 sports facilities allow 25 thousand people to regularly engage in various types of physical activity.
Population dynamics
Systematic observations of the number of inhabitants in the city have been conducted since 1979. In general, Novy Urengoy, whose population is almost always growing, shows good development. For the entire observation period, three points of decline in numbers were noted. This is the time from 1996 to 2000, when the negative dynamics of the population was recorded throughout the country. The second noticeable decline occurred in 2010, when the number of city residents decreased by 14 thousand people. The third period with negative dynamics is observed today, it began in 2014, and so far the authorities have not been able to change the situation. At the beginning of 2016, the number of inhabitants of Novy Urengoy was 111,163 people. Due to the large extent of the urban area, the population density indicator here is quite low - 470 people per 1 sq. km.km.
Ethnic composition and language
Novy Urengoy is a multinational city. Due to the fact that the settlement was formed at the expense of visitors from different parts of the country, a somewhat different ethnic situation has developed here than in many regions of Russia. Thus, the population of Novy Urengoy, who consider themselves Russians, is 64%. Almost 11% identified themselves as Ukrainians during the census. 5% of the total number of inhabitants are Tatars, 2.6% - Nogais, 2% - Kumyks and Azerbaijanis, 1.7% - Bashkirs. The remaining ethnic groups account for less than 1% each. Despite such ethnic diversity, the main, if not the only, language of communication in the region is Russian.
Gender and age characteristics of the population
In Russia, on average, everywhere the number of men is inferior to the number of women. Novy Urengoy, whose population has specific characteristics, fits into this trend, but the average preponderance is about 1.02 (49.3% of men and 50.7% of women), while in the country the proportion of women and men is 1.2 -1, 4.
In terms of age characteristics, the region also differs from the general Russian situation. This is a city with a large number of minors, 23% of the population are children under 15 years old. 19% of the population are residents older than working age. Thus, the dependency ratio for each able-bodied resident of the city is 1.4, which is lower than inmany regions of the country.
Demography of Novy Urengoy
Birth and death rates are the most important demographic indicators of the socio-economic development of the region. In Novy Urengoy, the birth rate is 15.4 per thousand people. And the mortality rate today rests on the indicator of 3.8 for every thousand people. The average age of a city dweller is 36 years. Thus, the population of the city of Novy Urengoy demonstrates a natural increase, and this allows us to classify it as a growing, rejuvenating type of settlements, while in the country, for the most part, mortality overtakes the birth rate. However, the region is not prosperous in terms of life expectancy; on average, residents of Novy Urengoy live 2-3 years less than other Russians.
Socio-economic development of Novy Urengoy
The region is distinguished by a high level of development, this is facilitated by stable work on extracting gas from the bowels of the Earth. The main occupations of the population of Novy Urengoy are work in the gas production and gas transportation industries. The region accounts for about 75% of all gas produced in the country. About a thousand different enterprises operate in the fuel and energy industry of Novy Urengoy.
Also, the city's economy is developing steadily due to the service sector. Novy Urengoy has its own enterprises for the production of dairy, confectionery and meat products. Service companies also make up a well-growing segment of the local market. Retail trade provides the highest profit and high employment. NewUrengoy is well endowed with socially significant enterprises and has fairly high rates of average wages. All this makes the city an attractive place to live and have children.
Employment of the population
The Employment Center of Novy Urengoy is monitoring the situation with unemployment. The organization has recorded an extremely low unemployment rate for many years in a row, it is 0.5-0.6%, while the national average is 4.5%. The Employment Center (Novy Urengoy) notes that the need for workers in the city is never fully satisfied, there are always at least 15,000 vacancies. It is difficult to find a job for people with rare speci alties, such as winemakers, and women over 35 with one or two higher educations experience some difficulty in finding work in their speci alty.
