Russia: Capital, Population, Currency and Facts

Key facts

Capital: Moscow
Region: Europe, Eastern Europe
Population: 143,513,328 (2025)
Area: 17,100,000 km²
Currency: Russian ruble (RUB)
Languages: Russian, Tatar, Kalmyk, Caucasian languages, Adyghe
Calling code: +7
Internet domain: .ru, .su, .рф
ISO codes: RU, RUS, 643
Time zone: UTC+2:00 to UTC+12:00
United Nations: Member state
Postal code pattern: ###### (# = digit, @ = letter)

Land and position

Russia covers about 17,100,000 square kilometres. By area it ranks 1st among the 250 countries and territories on this site. It is a little larger than Antarctica. It shares a land border with 14 neighbours: Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, North Korea, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Latvia, Mongolia, Norway, Poland, Ukraine. Its centre lies at about 60° north, 100° east, in the northern hemisphere.

Neighbours

People

About 144 million people live in Russia (World Bank, 2025). That makes it the 9th most populous of the 246 places on this site with a figure, with about 1.7 percent of the world's people. On average there are 8.4 people to each square kilometre. About 75 percent of people live in towns and cities (World Bank, 2025). A baby born there can expect to live about 73 years (World Bank, 2024). Languages listed for it: Russian, Tatar, Kalmyk, Caucasian languages, Adyghe, Komi, Chechen, Tuvinian. A person from Russia is called Russian.

Money and economy

The currency is the Russian ruble (code RUB, symbol ₽). The World Bank puts the size of its economy (GDP) at about US$ 2.56 trillion (2025), which is about US$ 17,547 for each person (2025).

Time

Russia spans 26 time zone areas, from UTC+2:00 to UTC+12:00. Clocks stay the same all year: there is no daylight saving time.

Time now in Moscow: loading

Offsets are for January 2026. See Time Zones for a converter.

Largest cities

City	People
Moscow	10,381,222
Saint Petersburg	5,351,935
Novosibirsk	1,612,833
Yekaterinburg	1,495,066
Nizhniy Novgorod	1,259,013
Kazan	1,243,500

City figures are from GeoNames and count the city itself, not the wider urban area. They can be some years old, so use them to see the order of size.

More in Eastern Europe

Moldova. See the whole region.

Figures were collected on 11 November 2026 from the World Bank, GeoNames and the open countries data set. See About and data sources. Borders and names follow those sources and do not express any view on disputed territory.