Kemerovo Oblast (,
Kemerovskaya oblast), also known as
Kuzbass after the
Kuznetsk Basin, is a
federal subject of
Russia (an
oblast), located in southwestern
Siberia, where the
West Siberian Plain meets the South Siberian mountains. The oblast, which covers an area of , shares a border with
Tomsk Oblast in the north,
Krasnoyarsk Krai and the
Republic of Khakassia in the east, the
Altai Republic in the south, and with
Novosibirsk Oblast and
Altai Krai in the west.
Kemerovo is the
administrative center of the oblast, though
Novokuznetsk is the largest city in the oblast, in terms of size. Kemerovo Oblast is one of Russia's most urbanized regions, with over 70% of the population living in its nine principal cities. Its ethnic composition is predominantly
Russian, but
Ukrainians,
Tatars, and
Chuvash also live in the oblast. The population recorded during the
2010 Census was 2,763,135.