Population Structure Dynamics of Belgorod Oblast: Ethnic Composition

The results of an analysis of the dynamics of the ethnicity of spouses in Belgorod oblast from 1890–1910 to 2016–2018 are presented. A fairly homogeneous ethnic composition has been established with a predominance of Russian ethnicity (more than 90% among both men and women) in all time periods. Over the 130-year period, the share of Russian ethnicity decreased slightly (1.1 times among both men and women), while the shares of Ukrainians (from 0.99 to 5.05% for men and from 0.57 to 5.38% for women) and other ethnicities (from 0 to 4.03% for men and from 0.20 to 2.74% for women) increased. The ethnic marital assortative index shows constancy for Russian ethnicity, a stable decline for Ukrainian ethnicity (both in the city and in the countryside), and a decrease in the urban population and an increase in the rural population for other ethnicities.