ABSTRACT
The Altai Republic is situated in the Altai Mountains. To the south-west it borders Kazakhstan, Mongolia lies to the south-east, and there is a short border with the People’s Republic of China to the south. Kemerovo Oblast lies to the north, Khakasiya and Tyva to the north-east, and Altai Krai to the north-west. The Republic includes the highest peak in Siberia, Belukha, at 4,506 m (14,783 feet). The Republic occupies 92,903 sq km (35,870 sq miles). At January 2014 it had an estimated population of 211,645 and a population density of 2.3 per sq km. Only 29.0% of the population lived in urban areas-a lower proportion than in any other federal subject. The Republic’s administrative centre, Gorno-Altaisk, had an estimated population of 61,420. Of those residents who stated their ethnicity at the 2010 census, 56.6% were Russian, 33.9% were Altai and 6.2% were Kazakh. The Altai people can be divided into two distinct groups: the Northern Altai, or Tubalars, and the Southern Altai. The languages spoken by both groups are from the Turkic branch of the Uralo-Altaic family. Although the traditional religions of the Altai were animist or Lamaism (Tibetan Buddhism), many converted to Christianity, so the dominant religion in the Republic is Russian Orthodoxy. The Republic is in the time zone GMT+6.
