ABSTRACT

The Republic of Adygeya (Adygeya) is situated in the foothills of the Greater Caucasus, a landlocked region in the basin of the Kuban river, surrounded by Krasnodar Krai. The Republic is characterized by open grassland and fertile soil and covers 7,792 sq km (3,009 sq miles). At January 2014 it had an estimated 446,406 inhabitants and a population density of 57.3 per sq km. Some 47.0% of the population lived in urban areas. The administrative centre of Adygeya is Maikop, with an estimated population of 144,544. Of those residents who stated their ethnicity at the 2010 census, 63.6% were Russian, 25.2% were Adyge, 3.7% were Armenian, 1.4% were Ukrainian and 1.1% were Kurdish. Almost all of the Adyge population speak Adyge (part of the Abkhazo-Adyge group of Caucasian languages), as their native language, although most also speak Russian. The dominant religion in Adygeya, owing to the preponderance of ethnic Russians, is Orthodox Christianity, but the traditional religion of the Adyges is Islam. The Republic is in the time zone GMT+3.