Sverdlovsk area

Geographical location
Sverdlovsk region is situated in the east of the Middle and the Northern Urals and on the territory of the West-Siberian plain. Area of the region is 194.8 thousand sq. km. The Middle Ural is the core of the Ural, mountain country, the real boundary between Europe and Asia. Distance to Moscow is 2000 km. The region borders on the Republic of Komi in the north, on Khanty-Mansyisky autonomy okrug, on Tyumen, Kurgan, Chelyabinsk, Perm regions and on the Republic of Bashkortostan.
Climate is continental. Winters are long and cold, summers are short and warm.
There are 60 big and small rivers, a lot of lakes and reservoirs. 173 supplies of fresh subterranean waters have been found. Considerable part of the territory is covered by forests (12 million hectares), especially coniferous: pines and firs.

Natural resources
Overall square of agricultural land of Sverdlovsk region comprises only 2.4 million hectares.
But great wealth of natural and mineral resources compensates deficiency of fertile land. The Ural is the richest region of Russia in mineral raw materials. There are more than 12,000 fields of minerals. Almost all elements of Mendeleev`s periodic system are represented in the region. There is iron, nickel, copper, manganese. The region is rich in gold, platinum. So the base of regional economics is mining and metallurgical branches. That is why Sverdlovsk region is the second in Russia by industrial production.

Administrative division
The region consists of 73 municipalities, 47 towns, 99 town settlements, 1,886 villages. Population of the region is 4,669,800 people, it makes up 3.2% of population in Russia. Citizens - 87.5%, 12.5% - in villages.
Administrative centre of Sverdlovsk region is Ekaterinburg with population 1,323,600 people (28% of the region`s population).

Science and education
Development of military industry in the Ural has provided increase number of leading specialists and scientists of the country. Due to them in the region there is a unique research base. Ekaterinburg is the 4th scientific centre of Russia and it opens wide opportunities for development of the region.

Culture
Coniferous forests and numerous rivers make the nature of the region attractive for development of tourism. Fauna is quite diverse: wild animals, fur-bearing animals. Flora of the region is presented by 1,900 kinds of plants. There are a lot of forest parks. Essential part of them is monuments of nature of the regional meaning. There are 3 natural territories of the federal meaning, protected by the state: state sanctuaries "Visimsky" (13 thousand hectares), "Denezhkin Stone" (78 thousand hectares) and national park "Pripyshmynskie bory" (45 thousand hectares). There are also about 500 monuments of nature.