The Yukaghirs. Demographics (population dynamics, urban/rural population, gender and age breakdown, youth cohort)  

The total number of Yukaghirs, according to the 2020 All-Russian Population Census, is 1,813 people (847 men and 966 women).

The dynamics of Yukaghirs’ numbers attests to complicated historical, economic, and political transformations that transpired in the country and region. Ilya S. Gurvich wrote that by the mid-17 th century, the vast lands between the Lena and the Anadyr were home to about 4,500 Yukaghirs. That was a demographic peak as since then, demographic figures were gradually falling. However, since the mid-20 th century, Yukaghir numbers were slowly climbing. The 1897 Census in the Russian Empire recorded 544 Yukaghirs. The 1926 Polar Census recorded 396 Yukaghirs in Yakutia and identified 64 settlements of their residence. Subsequent censuses reflected the following demographic situation (the first figure is the overall number of Yukaghis in the USSR / Russia, and the second figure is the number of Yukaghirs in Yakutia): 442 and 276 in 1959; 615 and 400 in 1970; 835 and 526 in 1979; 1,112 and 697 in 1989; 1,509, and 1,097 in 2002; 1,603 and 1,281 in 2010.

Children. Photo: Vladimir Jochelson. Late 19 th century. Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography. No. 4399-22/1

The increase in absolute numbers of Yukaghirs in 1959-2010 is an important demographic factor. During that time, the number of Yukaghirs in the Verkhnekolymsk district grew 2.4 times and it grew 5 times in the Nizhnekolymsk district; scholars ascribe it both to a natural population increase and to subjective reasons, for instance, to people who had previously been listed as Even or Yakut officially changing their ethnic identity. For instance, in 1989-2002, Yukaghir population increased by 397 persons; 174 persons were a result of natural population increase, and the 223 person-increase stemmed from people changing identity from Yakut to Yukaghir; the change in identity transfers a person into the ranks of indigenous small-numbered peoples (Yakuts are not on this list as they are more than 50,000 people) with potential and real opportunities to receive socioeconomic benefits and resources. The Yukaghir identity turns out to be an unstable category since people living for a long time in a polyethnic community do not assign great importance to thin lines between related groups and can in some circumstances claim to be Yukaghir and in other circumstances claim to be Even. 

The 2010 Census presents the following picture of Yukaghirs’ number and settlement in Yakutia. As said above, the total number of Yukaghirs in Yakutia is 1,281 persons. 78 Yukaghirs live in the Allaikhovsky district; 69 of them live in Chokurdakh, an urban-type settlement; 304 Yukaghirs live in the Verkhnekolymsk district, of them 72 in the village of Zyryanka, 177 in the village of Nelemnoye, and 38 in the village of Verkhnekolymsk; 390 Yukaghirs are recorded in the Nizhnekolymsk district, of them 131 in the urban-type settlement of Chersky, 181 in the village of Andryushkino, 72 in the village of Kolymskoye; 50 Yukaghirs live in the Srendekolymsk district; 94 Yukaghirs live in the Ust-Yana district, of them 30 in the village of Kazachye; per the Census, 204 Yukaghirs live in Yakutsk. If residents of urban-type settlements (Chokurdakh and Chersky) are counted as urbanites, the urban Yukaghir population in Yakutia is 404 persons, and rural population is 877 persons, or 32 % and 68 % respectively. 

In 1959-2013, the Yukaghir population in Yakutia has been aging. Gender-wise, men dominate, although their share in the second half of the 20 th – early 21 st centuries has shrunk somewhat.