Demographics (population dynamics, urban/rural population, gender and age breakdown, youth cohort)

The total permanent population of the Imeni Poliny Osipenko district of the Khabarovsk Territory is less than 4.3 thousand people (0.4% of the region’s total population). The district center is home to 45% of the district's population.

In the Imeni Poliny Osipenko district, the Negidals live in the villages of Vladimirovka (82 people), Udinsk (33), Kherpuchi (18). Twelve Negidals live in the regional center, the Imeni Poliny Osipenko village. In the Ulchsky district, 58 people live in the village of Tyr, 49 in Takhta,15 in Beloglinka and 24 in the regional center (Bogorodskoye). In the Nikolaevsky district, 49 people live in the workers’ settlement of Mago. In addition, the Negidals live in the Amursky, Ayano-Maisky, Vaninsky, Verkhnebureinsky, Komsomolsky, Nanaisky, Okhotsky, Solnechny and Tuguro-Chumikansky districts of the Khabarovsk Territory (1 to 8 people in each).

In the Imeni Poliny Osipenko district, after the collapse of the USSR, there was a high level of unemployment among the indigenous population of the working age (up to 53%).

The settlement of Vladimirovka occupies an area of 558 hectares. The total population (as of January 1, 2017) was 307 people, including 224 representatives of the small-numbered minorities: 157 Evenks, 11 Negidals, 2 Udege, 4 Nanai. Vladimirovka includes two villages: the administrative center (the village of Vladimirovka, located 12 km from the administrative center of the Imeni Poliny Osipenko district, and 812 km from the Khabarovsk regional center) and the village of Guga (located 108 km from the administrative center).

At the end of the 1920s, mixed marriages predominated among the Negidals of the lower reaches of the Amur (59.6%). They were mainly marriages with the Nivkh (83%); the Negidal men entered into such marriages more willingly (63.6%) than the women. Among the Amgun Negidals, most marriages were monoethnic; unions with the Evenks predominated in the mixed marriages. In the marriages of Negidal women with the Chinese and Koreans, children were assigned the mother’s nationality.

According to the census of 1897, the gender ratio among the Negidals was 232 (men) to 191 (women). The demographic situation took a turn for the worse during the Great Patriotic War. The young and healthy men were drafted, which disrupted the system of natural reproduction. In 1941-1945, in the areas inhabited by the Negidals, there were epidemic outbreaks, and the mortality significantly exceeded the birth rate. Many families were left without fathers, older brothers, and sons. At the end of the 1950s, monoethnic marriages predominated among the Amgun Negidals (59.7%).  In mixed marriages, as a rule, the person of the different nationality was the woman (Nanai, Ulchi, and Evenk). There have been isolated cases when a Nanai man came into the family of a Negidal woman, and the chairman of the local collective farm was married to a Ukrainian woman. The Negidal-Evenki marriages predominated (56%). All children from marriages with Negidal women were counted as Negidal in the censuses.

MAE No. 1837-86.

Group portrait of men. Negidals.

Russia, Khabarovsk Territory, the Amur River basin. Beginning of the 20th century

Photo by Lev Sternberg

Dimensions: 13.0 x 18.0 cm.

MAE No. 1837-87.

 Group portrait of women. Negidals.

Russia, Khabarovsk Territory, the Amur River basin. Beginning of the 20th century.

Photo by Lev Sternberg

Dimensions: 13.0 x 18.0 cm.

According to surveys, the majority of the Negidals are married (59.3%), of which 33.8% of men and 12.9% of women live in common law marriages, 8.1% are divorced (4% of men and 7.7% of women); 8.7% are widows/widowers (3.3% of men and 18.7% of women) and 21.2% are single (45% of men and 23.9% of women). Single-mother families predominate (54.5%). In terms of numerical composition, families of two people make up 23%, of three 6.8%, of four 19%, of five 18%, of six 10%, of seven 5%, of eight or 14 %.

Single men and women make up 1.8% of the population.  The monoethnic families make up 35.3%, the mixed ones 64.7%, of which 40% are families of male Negidals with representatives of other indigenous peoples; Negidal women entered into such marriages in 50% of cases. According to the census of 2002, in the Khabarovsk Territory there were 166 Negidal women and 142 men of working age. 

In the 1960s, there was a decrease in the birth rate among the Negidals due to multiple reasons, including shifts in family planning practices, the consequences of the Great Patriotic War, the consolidation of collective farms, the liquidation of “unpromising” villages, unemployment, and migration.

In 1985-1990, 76 children were born among the Negidals. In 1991-1996, this number dropped to 33, and in 1997-2002 there were 55 children. In the 1990s, the birth rate was almost the same as among the Russian population.

The transition to a small nuclear family with 1 or 2 children is now considered complete: 41% of families have 1 or 2 children, whereas in the 1960s, families with 4-5, or even with 9-10 children were the norm. A decrease in the birth rate and an increase in mortality could not but affect the age structure. By 2002, the number of Negidal children under 14 years of age in the Khabarovsk Territory had decreased to 24%, and of residents over 60 years old - to 7.8%. Since the 1990s, the health of the Negidals has become an acute problem; there is a high level of morbidity and mortality, and a low level of life expectancy.

MAE No. 1838-299.

A group of boys. Negidals. Russia

Khabarovsk Territory, the Amur River basin

Beginning of the 20th century

Photo by Lev Sternberg

Dimensions: photo on the left 7.4 x 6.4 cm; photo on the right 7.4 x 6.4 cm.

Boys. The village of Vladimirovka

August 2004

Photo by Vladimir Davydov

Mother with children. The village of Vladimirovka, August 2004.

Photo by Vladimir Davydov.