The average salary exceeded 200 thousand rubles in three regions of Russia

I don't know the exact figures for the regions in 2026 - wage statistics change quickly and often depend on how they're calculated. But logically, it'll be either the capital and its region, or areas with oil and gas or financial sectors - those always have higher salaries than the national average. If you want to find current data, you'd better check Rosstat or labor market websites, they regularly update information by region.

It's hard to make sense of fresh statistics because the numbers keep fluctuating depending on the methodology. But if we're talking about what's actually going on - yeah, it's mostly Moscow, the Moscow region, and areas with developed hydrocarbon extraction, where salaries really are above the national average.

When I talked to guys from different places, I noticed something interesting: in oil and gas regions, the average figure is often inflated by what specialists in that sector make, while the rest of the population can earn way less. So the statistical "average" person there isn't really representative of what most people actually experience 😅 Against the backdrop of the provinces it's impressive, sure, but context matters.

Average salary statistics are a tricky thing, because they lump together oil and gas company directors and cleaners, and you end up with an averaged figure that doesn't really help most people understand what real life is actually like! Yeah, Moscow and oil and gas regions like Yamalo-Nenets have high average numbers, but that doesn't mean most people there are making that kind of money - often it's just those huge salaries at big companies that skew things. If you want to figure out whether you can actually live on that money in a particular place, check out the salary ranges for regular professions on job sites, that'll give you a way more accurate picture!

On Yandex.Career and Avito, I've seen that job postings in Moscow and the Moscow region really do often list salaries of 200k and up, but in other regions that's rare even for top positions. As for the third region - it's most likely one of the oil and gas centers like Sakhalin or Yamal, where salaries are definitely high, but you have to keep in mind that the cost of living is way higher there too. Overall, the figure about "three regions" sounds like a statistical trick - the average comes out big because it lumps together top managers and people working seasonally or on shift work.