The most graphic expression of the process under examination is the growth of cities. Here are the data on this growth in European Russia (50 provinces) in the post-Reform era[690]:

Thus, the percentage of urban population is constantly increasing, that is, there is a withdrawal of population from agriculture toward commercial and industrial occupations[691]. Cities grow twice as fast as the rest of the population: from 1863 to 1897 the total population increased by 53.3 %, the rural population by 48.5, and the urban population by 97.0 %. Over 11 years (1885–1897) the "minimal influx of rural population into cities" was determined by V. Mikhaylovskii to be 2½ million people[692], that is, more than 200 thousand people per year.

The population of cities, which represent major industrial and commercial centers, grows much faster than the population of cities in general. The number of cities having 50 or more thousand inhabitants more than tripled from 1863 to 1897 (13 and 44). In 1863, of the total urban population only about 27 % (1.7 million out of 6.1) was concentrated in such major centers; in 1885 about 41 % (4.1 million out of 9.9)[693], and in 1897 already more than half, about 53 % (6.4 million out of 12 million). Thus, if in the 1860s the character of urban population was determined predominantly by the population of not very large cities, then in the 1890s the major cities achieved complete predominance. The population of 14 cities, which were the largest in 1863, grew from 1.7 million inhabitants to 4.3 million, that is, by 153 %, whereas the entire urban population increased only by 97 %. Consequently, the tremendous growth of major industrial centers and the formation of a whole series of new centers is one of the most characteristic symptoms of the post-Reform era.