encompasses eleven federal constituent entities of the Russian Federation: Arkhangelsk Region, Kaliningrad Region, the Republic of Karelia, Komi Republic, Leningrad Region, Murmansk Region, Nenets Autonomous Area, Novgorod Region, Pskov Region, the city of St Petersburg, and Vologda Region. The district’s administrative centre is the city of St Petersburg.
The NWFD is located in the Eastern European (Russian) Plain and has an area of 1,687 thousand square kilometres (9.9% of Russia’s territory) and a population of over 13.5 million (9.5% of the nation’s inhabitants).
The district has shores on five seas of two oceans: the Atlantic Ocean (the Baltic Sea) and the Arctic Ocean (the Barents, Pechora, White and Kara Seas), connected by the White Sea – Baltic Canal.
A large part of the Northwest Federal District’s territory is covered by forests. Approximately three percent of the district’s land is used for agriculture.
The NWFD is not the richest in Russia in raw materials. Nevertheless, the district engages in apatite mining (72% of Russian reserves) and titanium mining (77%). Oil and gas reserves account for about 8% of Russia’s total, while coal accounts for about 3%. The district has large reserves of peat and oil shale.
Approximately 19% of Russia’s nickel and iron ore is mined in the Northwest Federal District. Which also has major diamond deposits (19% of Russia’s total), as well as deposits of rare metals, gold, and uranium.
The district’s key industries include mechanical engineering (turbines, machine tools, and diesel engines), the chemical sector, light industry, forestry, woodworking, the paper and pulp industry, and metallurgy. Knowledge-intensive production (electronics and electrical technology, instrument engineering, and shipbuilding) is also highly developed.
The Northwest Federal District ranks second in fishing, after the Far Eastern Federal District.