The Koryaks. Demographics

The number of Koryaks in the Russian Federation according to the All-Russian Population Census (RPC) 2010 г. was 7,953 people, of which 6,640 people. lived in the Kamchatka Territory, 900 - in the Magadan Region. The census recorded a small number of Koryaks in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug - 69 people, in the Khabarovsk Territory - 55 people, in the Primorsky Territory - 34 people, as well as in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Yakutia, the Sverdlovsk Region, St. Petersburg and Moscow. The number of Koryaks, according to the All-Russian Census 2020–2021, was 7,485 people (3,582 men, 3,983 women), of which 6,413 people lived in the Kamchatka Territory.

The Koryak area’s population is largely rural. The area has only one urban-type settlement named Palana. The Koryak area’s population and demographic structure were significantly affected by the Soviet campaign aimed at phasing out “unpromising” villages held from the mid-1950s until the mid-1980s that eliminated nearly two-thirds of settlements whose residents were forced to relocate to larger villages.

Until 2007, the area was part of the Kamchatka region. Its population dropped significantly with the outbreak of the post-Soviet crisis of the 1990s. The trend for families to have fewer children proved irreversible. Between 1995 and 2002, the share of children in the total population of the Koryak autonomous area dropped from 26.6 to 19.7%. Given the overall population decline trend partially owed to the departure of out-of-region professionals, the administration of the Koryak autonomous area transformed urban-type settlements Pakhachi, Korf, and Iliinsky into villages in its resolution passed on January 14, 1994.

Today’s development of the Koryak District is characterized by the young generation’s greater role in public life. Youth organizations are eligible for different kinds of state support. In 1998, the government passed the law “On State Youth Policy in the Koryak Autonomous Area” that proclaimed, among other principles, “special care of the young generation of indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North living in the Koryak autonomous area.” The law also envisaged “additional legal, economic, and social guarantees for young people and families from indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North” living in the area.

In 2010, the Kamchatka Territory established “The North Peoples’ Friendship,” a public youth organization of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North. The young generation from the Koryak District is actively involved in the events held by this organization. For four years, the “Youth Crew Landing in Home Villages” project had “North Peoples’ Friendship” activists living in the Koryak area’s villages for several months and promoting a healthy lifestyle, involving the young generation in activism, etc. They held master classes, coaching sessions, round tables, etc.