Chief Researcher (Ph. D. H. Sc.), Department of the North and Siberia,

Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences 

Anna Sirina 

Evens. Demographics (population dynamics, urban/rural population, age and gender makeup, young cohort). 

The censuses show that the numbers of Evens grew dynamically from 1926 to 2010: from 2,044 to 22,383 people. The 2020/21 Census revealed a decrease by recording 20.600 Evens. But researchers think that the statistics of 2020 was more accurate due to the correct recording of Evens – before that, due to the phonetic similarity, some Evenki were recorded as Evens. 

The proportion of Evens among urban population is growing consistently: in 1989, this figure was at 25.1 percent, in 2002 – 32.4 percent, in 2010 – 35.9 percent, and in 2020/21 it remained much the same. According to the 2020/2021 Census, 12,994 Evens in RF live in rural areas, 6,981 in cities. In 2010, the proportion of urban Even population was the highest in Magadan Oblast (70 percent), the lowest in Kamchatka (around 17 percent), in Chukotka it was 25 percent, in Yakutia it was around 34 percent. 

Even never make a majority in any area of their residence, they live side by side with other ethnic groups who surpass them in numbers – with Yakuts in Yakutia (urban and rural population), Russians and Russian-speaking ethnic groups (mostly urban) in other regions. One of the ways of increasing the number of Evens in Yakutia is mixed marriages, in which children choose to identify themselves as Evens. In rural areas in Kamchatka Evens are in close ethnocultural relations with Koryaks, Itelmens, Kamchadals, partly with the Chukchi; in Khabarovsk Krai with Evenki and Negidals; in Magadan Oblast with Koryaks, Yukaghirs, Kamchadals, in Chukotka with the Chukchi and Yukaghirs; in Yakutia, apart from Yakuts, they have contacts with Yukaghirs, partly with the Evenki and the Chukchi. 

Compared to the 2002 Census, when the difference between the numbers of men and women was nearly 3,000 people (10,792 women and 7,850 men), the gender imbalance has grown smaller, but it has not disappeared altogether: the 2020/21 Census revealed that there were 9,571 men and 10,404 women. As the 2010 Census showed, the age structure of Evens is young, the average age of the ethnic group is 26 years old; this young structure has been preserved throughout all the areas of Evens’ residence.