Soviet census

The following is a summary of censuses carried out in the Soviet Union:

Year	Territory (km2)	Total population	Rank	Density per km2	Change	Urban population	Share	Males	Share	Females	Share	Largest city	Second largest city	Third largest city	Ethnic Russians	Share	Ethnic minorities	Notes
1926	21 176 187	147 027 915	3rd	6.94	7.5%	26 314 114	17.9%	71 043 352	48.3%	75 984 563	51.7%	Moscow (2 025 947)	Leningrad (1 590 770)	Kiev (513 637)	77 791 124	52.9%	Ukrainians (31 194 976) Belarusians (4 738 923)	[a]
1937		162 039 470		7.65	10.2%	43 729 514	27.0%	75 789 892	46.8%	84 331 656	53.2%	Moscow (3 798 078)	Leningrad (est. 2 814 500)	Kiev (775 850)	93 933 065	58.0%	Ukrainians (26 421 212) Belarusians (4 874 061)	[b][1]
1939		170 557 093	4th	8.05	5.3%	56 125 139	32.9%	81 694 889	48.0%	88 862 204	52.0%	Moscow (4 131 633)	Leningrad (3 191 304)	Kiev (846 724)	99 591 520	58.4%	Ukrainians (28 111 007) Belarusians (5 275 393)	[c][2]
1959	22 402 200	208 826 650	3rd	9.32	22.4%	99 977 695	47.9%	94 050 303	45.0%	114 776 347	55.0%	Moscow (5 045 905)	Leningrad (3 121 196)	Kiev (1 104 334)	114 113 579	54.6%	Ukrainians (37 252 930) Belarusians (7 913 488)	[d][3]
1970		241 720 134		10.79	15.7%	135 991 514	56.2%	111 399 377	46.1%	130 320 757	53.9%	Moscow (6 941 961)	Leningrad (3 949 501)	Kiev (1 631 908)	129 015 140	53.4%	Ukrainians (40 753 246) Uzbeks (9 195 093)
1979		262 436 227		11.71	8.6%	163 585 944	62.3%	122 328 833	46.6%	140 107 394	53.4%	Moscow (7 830 509)	Leningrad (4 588 183)	Kiev (2 143 855)	137 397 089	52.3%	Ukrainians (42 347 387) Uzbeks (12 455 978)
1989		286 730 817		12.80	9.3%	188 813 355	65.8%	135 360 790	47.2%	151 370 027	52.8%	Moscow (8 769 117)	Leningrad (5 023 506)	Kiev (2 587 945)	145 155 489	50.6%	Ukrainians (44 186 006) Uzbeks (16 697 825)	[e][4]