Rostov region as an administrative body was founded in compliance with the Provision of the Central Committee of the USSR on September 13, 1937. The territory of Rostov Region is some 100.8 thousand square kilometers and equals to the territories of Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark taken together.
Rostov Region borders with Voronezh and Volgograd Regions, Stavropol and Krasnodar Regions, the Republic of Kalmykiya and Ukraine.
Rostov stands out from other Russian regions by its high scientific, industrial, resource and financial potential.
The Region’s economic development is based on such factors as its favourable geographic position (the region brings together central Russia, the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia), abundance of natural resources, traditionally favourable conditions for development, excellent human labour resources and a well-developed transportation infrastructure.
By the pace of economic reforms in recent years, the volumes of production the region occupies one of the leading positions both in the Southern Federal District and in Russia.
The region is surrounded by economically advanced territories: Donbass in the West, the central part of Russia in the north and northeast, the Volga region in the east and the Caucasus in the south. Country’s richest coal, oil and gas fields, metallurgy, machine-building, chemical and agricultural centers are situated only 1.0 to 1.5 thousand kilometers from the region’s borders. A lot of the goods delivery through the territory of Rostov Region.
The Don river flows across the territory of the region. The Don is one of the largest rivers in Europe with numerous branches and tributaries.
Rostov region possesses large coal reserves. Eastern Donbass coal, mainly anthracite, is world’s the best coal by the level of calorie content.
Mineral reserves are used in metallurgy and construction materials production. The explored natural gas reserves are estimated at around 56.2 billion cubic meters.
The timber resources of the region are rather scarce, with forest covering only 2.8% of the region’s territory. These forests have mainly water and environmental protection functions.
The recreational resources include summer. These resorts are rich in mineral waters and have good potential for international tourism development.
Administrative and Territorial Division. Population.
The Rostov region includes 463 municipal units which consist of 12 municipal districts, 43 municipal regions, 18 cities and towns and 390 rural settlements.
Administrative centre of the Rostov region and the Southern Federal District is Rostov-on-Don with a population more than 1 million people. Rostov-on-Don is large industrial, cultural and scientific centre, river port and important transportation hub.
In 2002 the city became the capital of the Southern Federal District attained additional political and economic importance.
Region’s main cities are Taganrog – with a population of 281.9 thousand people, Shakhty with a population 254.7 thousand people, Novocherkassk with a population 184.47 thousand people, Volgodonsk with a population 172.4 thousand people and Novoshakhtinks with a population 117.6 thousand people (according to the census of 2002).
The population of the region is 4404.013 million people (according to the census of 2002). More than 2/3 of the population live in cities and towns. The region ranks 5th place in Russia in terms of the population.
Population density is 42.5% people /1 square kilometer.
As for the national composition, 89.3% of the population are Russians, 2.7% Ukrainians, 2.5% Armenians and 0.6% Byelorussians. Representatives of more than 150 different nationalities live in Rostov region. The mutual respect of the peoples and the traditionally close economic and cultural bonds are the main values highly appreciated and carefully guarded on the Don.
The working-age population is about 70% of the total amount. The educational level of the people in the economically active age is quite high. Thus, for every 1000 people 300 people have secondary specialized education, 400 – secondary general education, 87 – unfinished secondary education, 190 completed higher education degree and 12 - unfinished higher education.
The average annual number of individuals employed in economic activities is 1.75 million people, among them there are 1.2 million people working in private enterprises and organizations.