Drops of Knowledge – Discovering Black Sea Facts & Figures
BSEC Countries Edition - Russian Federation
4 November 2025
The International Centre for Black Sea Studies (ICBSS) has launched the Drops of Knowledge – Discovering Black Sea Facts & Figures “BSEC Countries Edition”.
Thirteen infographics -one for each of the thirteen BSEC Member States- with the aim to provide comprehensive information of key socioeconomic indicators, such as population, unemployment, education, economy, and climate change. The infographics are published monthly.
The tenth infographic focuses on the Russian Federation.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Urban Development: 12% of the urban population lives in Moscow, the country’s largest city (2024).
- Agriculture and Rural Development: 24% of the total population lives in rural areas, as of 2024. In 1960, the first year this indicator was recorded, the percentage of the rural population was 46%.
- Population: 66% of the total population is between the ages 15-64 (2024).
- Climate Change and Environment: 3.5% of the total final energy consumption comes from renewable energy sources (2021).
- Gender Inequality Index (GII): The GII measures gender inequalities in three key dimensions: a) reproductive health, b) empowerment, c) and labour market. Reproductive health is measured by maternal mortality ratio and adolescent birth rates; empowerment is measured by the shares of parliamentary seats held and population with at least some secondary education by each gender; and labour market participation is measured by the labour force participation rates for women and men. In 2023, the Russian Federation ranks 45 out of 172 countries.
- Education: During the most recent decade for which data are available (2008-2018), government expenditure on education has increased from 12% to 14.3%.
- Science and Technology: In 2022, the most recent year for which data is available, gross domestic expenditures on research and development (R&D) are 0.93%. In 1996, the first year in which this indicator was recorded, the percentage was 0.97%.
- Economy and Growth: In 2024, the annual percentage growth rate of GDP is 4.3%. In 2021, inflation as measured by the consumer price index is 6.7%. Over the last twenty years (2004-2024), exports of goods and services have decreased from 34.4% to 21.9%, while imports have decreased from 22.2% to 17.6%.
- Unemployment: Over the last twenty years (2004-2024), unemployment of the total labour force has decreased from 7.8% to 2.5%. Male and female youth unemployment (labour force ages 15-24) decreased from 16.1% to 8.8% and from 18.7% to 9.8%, respectively (modeled ILO estimate).
- Trade: 2015 and 2016 saw the highest percentage of high-technology exports of all years, at 16% of manufactured exports. In 2021, the most recent year for which data is available, the share of high-technology exports is 10%.
Sources:
The World Bank Group, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator
United Nations Development Programme, Gender Inequality Index (GII), https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/thematic-composite-indices/gender-inequality-index#/indicies/GII
All last accessed on 30 October 2025.
