During the Soviet era this city was closed to foreigners, hence it was not known in the west. But it’s the fourth largest city in Russia and growing year by year. The third largest city, Novosibirsk, is dropping in population. Both E-burg and Novosibirsk experience more deaths than births (in E-burg there were 54,500 births and 65,000 deaths in 2008). Growth in E-burg comes from in-migration because of job opportunities. Right now E-burg has about 1.3 million people, with 4.5 million in the general area. The population is 90 percent ethnic Russian with splinter representation from 21 different ethnic groups.