ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the historical record of available statistical evidence. Population censuses constitute the principal source of data on the demographic characteristics of Soviet ethnic groups. Assuming continued growth at 1979–1989 intercensal rates, the Moslem nationalities would currently outnumber the Slavic and Other European nationalities combined, and would require only a generation to equal the non-Russian remainder of the Soviet population altogether. The extent of ethnic mixing among Soviet nationalities has been a matter of keen interest to Soviet social scientists as well as Western observers. Because a republic’s contribution to the USSR index depends on its weight in the total Soviet population, it is desirable to control for relative population size in comparing the republic segregation indices. The residual category, which includes nonresponse, exhibits reassuringly little systematic departure from the average geographic distribution of the Soviet population at large.
