Orenburg Oblast

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Orenburg Oblast (Russian: Оренбу́ргская о́бласть, Orenburgskaya oblast) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). It is located in the Volga Federal District, and its administrative center is the city of Orenburg.

Area: 124,000 km²; population: 2,179,551 (2002 Census); 2,174,459 (1989 Census).

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[edit] Geography

The most important river of the oblast is the Ural.

[edit] Time zone

Orenburg Oblast is located in the Yekaterinburg Time Zone (YEKT/YEKST). UTC offset is +0500 (YEKT)/+0600 (YEKST).

[edit] Administrative divisions

[edit] Demographics

According to the (2002 Census), the national composition of the oblast was as follows:
Russians: 73.9% • Tatars: 7.6% • Kazakhs: 5.8% • Ukrainians: 3.5% • Bashkirs: 2.4% • Mordvinians: 2.4% • Germans: 0.8%
Chuvash: 0.8% • Belarusians: 0.4% • Azeris: 0.4% • Uzbeks: 0.2% • and many other groups, none more than 0.2% of the population. (0.13% of the population did not state their nationality in the census.)

[edit] Religion

Mostly Orthodox Christian with large muslim population around 20%.

[edit] Economy

Orenburg Oblast is one of the major agricultural areas of Russia. Its climate is favorable for farming: humid spring, dry summer and a large number of sunny days make perfect conditions for cultivating hard wheat and rye, sunflowers, potatoes, peas, beans, corn, and gourds.

The range of Orenburg export commodities includes: oil and oil products, gas and gas produced products, rolled ferrous and non-ferrous metals, nickel, asbestos, chromium compounds, rough copper, electric engines, radiators, products of machine-building industry.