ABSTRACT
The Republic of Komi is situated in the north-east of European Russia. Mountains of the Northern, Circumpolar and Polar Urals occupy the eastern part of the Republic. Its major rivers are the Pechora and the Vychegda. Komi is bordered to the north and west by Archangel Oblast (including the Nenets Autonomous Okrug), and to the east by Tyumen Oblast (including the Khanty-Mansii Autonomous Okrug—Yugra and the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug). To the south there are borders with Kirov Oblast, Perm Krai and Sverdlovsk Oblast. Some 90% of its territory is taiga (forested marshland), while the extreme north-east of the Republic lies within the Arctic tundra zone. The Republic occupies an area of 416,774 sq km (160,917 sq miles). At January 2017 it had an estimated population of 850,554 and a population density of 2.0 per sq km. Some 78.0% of the population lived in urban areas. Komi’s capital is Syktyvkar, with an estimated population of 244,646 in January 2017. Of those residents who stated their ethnicity at the 2010 census, 65.1% were Russian, 23.7% were Komi, 4.2% were Ukrainian, 1.3% were Tatar and 1.0% were Belarusian. The predominant religion in the region is Orthodox Christianity, although among the Komi this faith is combined with strong animist traditions. The language of the Komi population belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralo-Altaic family. The Republic of Komi is in the time zone UTC+3.
