Jewish Autonomous Oblast Еврейская автономная область (Russian) |
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Political status | |||||
Country | Russia | ||||
Federal district | Far Eastern | ||||
Economic region | Far Eastern | ||||
Established | May 7, 1934 | ||||
Administrative center | Birobidzhan | ||||
Government (as of July 2014) | |||||
• Governor | Alexander Levintal | ||||
• Legislature | Legislative Assembly | ||||
Statistics | |||||
Area (as of the 2002 Census) | |||||
• Total | 36,000 km2 (14,000 sq mi) | ||||
Area rank | 61st | ||||
Population (2010 Census) | |||||
• Total | 176,558 | ||||
• Rank | 80th | ||||
• Density | 4.9/km2 (13/sq mi) | ||||
• Urban | 67.6% | ||||
• Rural | 32.4% | ||||
Population (2016 est.) | |||||
• Total | 170,000 | ||||
Time zone(s) | VLAT (UTC+10:00) | ||||
ISO 3166-2 | RU-YEV | ||||
License plates | 79 | ||||
Official languages | Russian | ||||
Official website |
The Jewish Autonomous Oblast (Russian: Евре́йская автоно́мная о́бласть, Yevreyskaya avtonomnaya oblast; Yiddish: ייִדישע אװטאָנאָמע געגנט, yidishe avtonome Gegent) is a federal subject of Russia in the Russian Far East, bordering Khabarovsk Krai and Amur Oblast in Russia and Heilongjiang province in China. Its administrative center is the town of Birobidzhan.
At its height in the late 1940s, the Jewish population in the region peaked at around 46,000-50,000, around 25% of the entire population. As of the 2010 Census, JAO's population was 176,558 people, or 0.1% of the total population of Russia. Judaism is practiced by only 0.2% of the population of the JAO. Article 65 of the Constitution of Russia provides that the JAO is Russia's only autonomous oblast. It is one of two official Jewish territories in the world, the other being Israel.
By 2010, according to data provided by the Russian Census Bureau, there were only 1,628 Jews remaining in the JAO (less than 1% of the population), while ethnic Russians made up 92.7% of the JAO population.
In 1858 the northern bank of the Amur River, including the territory of today's Jewish Autonomous Oblast, became incorporated into the Russian Empire pursuant to the Treaty of Aigun (1858) and the Convention of Peking (1860).