Novye Issledovaniâ Tuvy (Jun 2016)

Contemporary ethnodemography of youth in Tuva and Khakassia

  • Zoia V. Anaiban

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 0, no. 2

Abstract

Read online

The article focuses on the comparative ethnodemographic situations of the youth in the republics of Tuva and Khakassia. Youth aged 15-29 accounts for 23.8% of Tuva’s total population, and 24.9%, of Khakassia’s, which almost matches Russia’s national average of 22%. Among the features typical for both regions is the rise of the share of youth, primarily thanks to natural population increase. In Khakassia, this trend is a reversal of the situation typical since the 1990s. Moreover, this rise comes together with a relatively advantageous population structure by gender and age. Unlike Khakassia, where the share of ethnic Khakassians among the youth is around 21%, the ethnic makeup of youth (or, indeed, the whole population) of Tuva shows a marked prevalence (82%) of the ‘titular nation’. Although in both Tuva and Khakassia young people have a lower death rate than the regional average, it still remains one of the most troublesome among the youth-related demographic problems in the regions. In Khakassia, youth death rate conspicuously exceeds those in other regions of Siberia, including Tuva. Howsoever markedly different the two regions may be in a number of social and economic indicators, the abovementioned is equally true of the youth population in both Tuva and Khakassia. As our study has shown, despite their varied intensity and acuteness, the current problems that youths of both regions face have a lot in common.

Keywords