- Karelia on the European map
- Republic of Karelia is the European Region of the Year 2003 brochure
in *.pdf format ( 1,19 Mb )
- Passport of the Republic of Karelia (February 2007) brochure in *.doc format (
 2,06Mb)
The Republic of Karelia is located in the North-West of Russia, it is included in the Northern economic region of Russian Federation.
The area of Karelia is - 180,5 thousand square km
(1,06% of the total territory of Russia). Its length from north to south is 660 km, from west to east on the latitude of the town Kem is 424 km. Karelia borders on Finland in the West, on Leningrad district in the South, on Murmansk and Archangelsk district in the East. In the North-West the Republic is washed by the White sea. The northern border line of Karelia coincides with the state border RF and its length is 723 km.
According to All-Russian population census of 2002 population of
the Republic of Karelia makes 716 thousand people. Urban population
makes 75% (537 thousand people), rural - 25% (179 thousand people),
37% of the population lives in the capital of the Republic the city of
Petrozavodsk. Population density of the republic makes 4 persons per
square kilometer.
Middle age of the population of the republic on the data of
All-Russian population census of 2002 makes 37.1 years. The population
of able-bodied age makes 450 thousand people, and 137 thousand people
are older.
National structure of the population:
Russians - 73.6%, Karelians - 10%, Byelorussians - 7%, Ukrainians -
3.6%, Finns - 2.3%, Vepps - 0.8%.
The republic consists of 19 municipal districts, 808 settlements.
Each municipal formation is headed by the person elected according to
the Law of Republic Karelia About elections of deputies of
representative bodies and heads of local self-governments.
In Karelia there are 3 cities of republican significance, (Petrozavodsk-282,9 thousand, Kostomuksha- 32,5 thousand, Sortavala-20,2 thousand), 4 towns and districts of republican significance (Kem and Kemsky district, Kondopoga and Kondopozhsky district, Pitkyaranta and Pitkyarantsky district, Segezha and Segezhsky district), 11 districts including Kalevalsky national one),
1 volost (Vepska national volost) with the status of administrative and territorial unit, 11 settlements of town type.
The largest part of the territory of Karelia is a hilly plain with evident traces of glacier. The wavy surface of the land keeps the traces of ancient mountains. Karelia is often called "stony lake-forest land", highlighting the leading elements of landscape, beautiful combinations, created by countless lakes and rivers and the land in-between, covered with forest.
More than 49%
of the republic area is covered with forest (main species are pine and fur tree), 25% of the territory is watery surface. There are more than 60 thousand lakes and 27 thousand rivers in Karelia. The largest are the Ladoga lake (area is 17,7 thousand square km) and the Onega lake (area is 9,9 thousand square km). The largest rivers are: Vodla (400 km), Vyg, Kovda, Kem, Suna, Shuya. The total length of the river net is about 83 thousand km.
More than 50 types of minerals, located in more than 400 deposits were discovered in Karelia. The minerals are: iron ore, vanadium, molibden, rare metals, diamonds, mica, construction materials (granite, marble, diabasis), clay, appatit-carbonate ore, asbest.
The Republic of Karelia has favorable economic-geographic location, it is situated near central highly industrially developed Russian and Western regions, has a developed water transportation system, and significant natural resources.
The place of Karelia in industrial Russian complex is determined in the first place by the branches of industry, using local natural resources (forest, wood-processing, pulp and paper, ferrous metallurgy, construction materials industry), and also by the industry branches using imported raw materials (machinery making and non-ferrous metallurgy).
The republic makes 10% of the total amount of iron ore got in RF, 23% of total amount of paper produced in RF, 9% - of pulp, 7,3% - of industrial wood, 4% of sawlog, about 60% of paper bags.
|
