О КМНС

Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences
Dmitry Funk

Shors. Demographics

The total number of Shors according to the results of the All-Russian Population Census in 2010 was 12,888 people, in 2020 – 10,507 people. About 80% of the Shors live in their main territory in the Kemerovo region; a fairly large group of Shors is also known in Khakassia (1,457 people, or 14% in 2020). The Shors also live in the Krasnoyarsk Territory and in the Altai Republic. The overwhelming majority of Shors (12,188 persons) is concentrated in the places of their primary residence: the Kemerovo region (Kuzbass as of 2020) - 10,672 persons and the Republic of Khakassia (mainly the Tashtypsky district) – 1,150 persons. Significantly smaller groups of the Shors also reside in the Krasnoyarsk (161 persons) and Altai (118 persons) territories and in the Altai Republic (87 persons).

The largest communities of the Shors, concentrated in the Kemerovo region - Kuzbass and the Republic of Khakassia, form not only the bulk of the population of the minority, but also create enclaves for the preservation and development of their forms of ethnic culture, traditional way of life and identity as factors promoting the ethnic affinity of the Shors. At the same time, the direction of the demographic processes within Shor communities in the past decades indicates a consistent decline in their numbers. For example, in the Kemerovo region - Kuzbass (where 82.8% of the total number of the Shors in the Russian Federation lived in 2010), the All-Russian (All-Union) population censuses record the following downward dynamic: 14,059 persons in 1970; 12,767 in 1979; 12,585 in 1989; 11,554 in 2002; 10,672 in 2010. The reasons for the decline in the numbers of the Shors are associated both with a negative natural increase and a partial change in ethnic identity (since 2002), especially in the youth cohort.

On the territory of the Kemerovo region - Kuzbass, the local groups of the Shors are distributed mainly in four municipalities, which are regional industrial centers specializing in the extraction/processing of coal, metals and mineral raw materials. They are: the Tashtagol municipal district (42.2% of the total population of the Shors in Kuzbass), the Mezhdurechensky (18.7%); the Myskovsky (16.4%) and the Novokuznetsky (14.1%) urban districts. A high degree of urbanization of the Shor population is associated with permanent residence within urban agglomerations (or the nearby territories). The rural/urban population ratio changed from 60/40% in 1959 to 23.7/76.3% in 2010.

Distribution by age and gender (according to the census of 2010, persons)

	Urban and rural populations			Urban population			Rural population
	Men and women	men	women	Men and women	men	women	Men and women	men	women
SHORS	12188	5618	6570	8788	3958	4830	3400	1660	1740
age:
0 – 4	861	454	407	597	325	272	264	129	135
5 – 9	738	387	351	505	265	240	233	122	111
10 – 14	708	360	348	481	244	237	227	116	111
15 – 17	460	248	212	329	170	159	131	78	53
18 – 19	421	189	232	346	149	197	75	40	35
20 – 24	1203	623	580	928	474	454	275	149	126
25 – 29	1086	517	569	826	386	440	260	131	129
30 – 34	931	446	485	679	334	345	252	112	140
35 – 39	797	387	410	568	273	295	229	114	115
40 – 44	928	406	522	665	272	393	263	134	129
45 – 49	1070	479	591	775	338	437	295	141	154
50 – 54	1044	417	627	735	279	456	309	138	171
55 – 59	676	285	391	461	176	285	215	109	106
60 – 64	397	157	240	285	106	179	112	51	61
65 – 69	204	68	136	151	43	108	53	25	28
70 and older	664	195	469	457	124	333	207	71	136

below working age	2467	1285	1182	1694	892	802	773	393	380
working age	8065	3913	4152	5916	2793	3123	2149	1120	1029
older than working age	1656	420	1236	1178	273	905	478	147	331
Median age	33,3	30,3	36,2	32,7	29,6	36,2	34,7	32,9	36,3

The specifics of the sex-age structure of the Shors make it possible to generally characterize this population as stagnating, with a high proportion of working age groups, narrowed cohorts at 60 years and older, and a tendency to reduce the proportion of children. The youth cohort (range of 20–30 years) is large. Despite the significant proportion of the reproductively active population, no expanded reproduction is currently observed in the Shor community, which correlates with the demographic transition and the general context of urbanization.