ABSTRACT
Kirov Oblast is situated in the east of the Eastern European Plain. It is bordered by Archangel Oblast and the Republic of Komi to the north, Perm Krai and the Udmurt Republic to the east, the Republics of Tatarstan and Marii-El to the south, and Nizhnii Novgorod, Kostroma and Vologda Oblasts to the west. Its main river is the Vyatka. The Oblast occupies 120,374 sq km (46,477 sq miles). At January 2017 its population was an estimated 1,291,684 and the population density 10.7 per sq km. Some 76.3% of the population lived in urban areas. The Oblast’s administrative centre is Kirov, a river-port with an estimated 501,468 inhabitants in January 2017. Of those oblast residents who stated their ethnicity at the 2010 census, 91.9% were Russian, 2.8% were Tatar, 2.3% Mari and 1.0% Udmurt. The territory is in the time zone UTC+3.
