 Map Siberia In 1994 Siberia had an estimated population of 25,116,000. Overall, the region is sparsely inhabited, with an average population density of two persons per sq km (five per sq mi). The population is concentrated mainly along the Trans-Siberian Railroad in southern Siberia, and in the southwest, where the climate is relatively mild. Most major cities lie along or near the Trans-Siberian Railroad. From west to east, these include Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Novokuznetsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Khabarovsk, and Vladivostok. Yakutsk and Yeniseysk are located farther north, on the Lena and Yenisey rivers.
The great majority of Siberia's population is Russian. Other groups in the region include the Kazakhs, of northern Kazakhstan and neighboring Russian territory; the Buryats, most of whom live near Lake Baikal; and the Yakuts, a farming people in the middle Lena basin. Peoples of northern Siberia include relatively small populations of Tungus, Chukchi, and Koryaks. While Russian is the dominant language in the region, the non-Russian peoples speak a variety of other languages of the Paleo-Asiatic, Uralic, Altaic, and Indo-European language families.
The region of Siberia spans 13,488,500 sq km (5,207,900 sq mi) and is even larger than Canada, which is the second largest country in the world after Russia. The region is divided into three major geographic areas. In the west, between the Ural Mountains and the Yenisey River, is the West Siberian Plain, which contains large amounts of swampland. Between the Yenisey and Lena rivers lies the Central Siberian Plateau, with elevations ranging between 300 and 1200 m (1000 and 4000 ft). And to the east is a complex system of mountain ranges and uplands extending from the Lena River to the Pacific coast.
Siberia has several major mountain ranges. The mountain chain composed of the Yablonovyy and Stanovoy ranges extends from just north of the Mongolian border northeast to the Sea of Okhotsk. Also on the Mongolian border, south of the Central Siberian Plateau, are the Sayan Mountains. The highest mountains in Siberia are generally in the Altay range, south of the West Siberian Plain. Spanning portions of Russia's borders with Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and China, the Altay Mountains generally measure between 3000 and 4000 m (10,000 and 13,000 ft) in height, reaching their highest elevation at Mount Belukha (4,506 m/ 14,783 ft). At Siberiaâs northeastern extreme, a chain of volcanic peaks-some of which are still active-extends along the entire length of the Kamchatka Peninsula. One volcano, Klyuchevskaya Sopka, is the tallest peak in Siberia at 4,750 m (15,584 ft).
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