Population: 2,694,500

Economy: Main branches: machine-building and metal-working, fuel industry, oil-refinery, chemical and oil-chemical, ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy. Production of building materials, textile, wood-working and food industries are well developed. Industrial centres are Volgograd, Volzhsky, Kamyshin. Branch structure of industry: power engineering (18.9%), fuel industry (14.7%), ferrous metallurgy (6.5%), nonferrous metallurgy (3.9%), chemical and oil-chemical (19.9%), machine-building and metal-working (13.9%), forest, wood-working and pulp and paper industry (1.2%), food industry (11.8%).

Culture: Cultural and intellectual potential of the region is concentrated in Volgograd. In the city there are 7 theatres, puppet theatre, 14 cinemas, 19 palaces of culture, art gallery, 2 concert halls, state circus, sports palace, 4 parks of culture, 69 libraries, 5 museums, well-known museum-panorama "Stalingrad fighting", 190 monuments of history, monument- ensemble to the Heroes of Stalingrad fighting on Mamaev hill. More than 300 thousand people visit museum-panorama, 4 million people visit monument-ensemble every year.

Administrative division: The region is divided into 33 districts, 6 towns of regional submission, 13 towns of district submission, 27 town settlements, 445 villages. Centre of the region is Volgograd

Brief History:

• Established as oblast' in 1934.