1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
Russia
Compare this sourced profile of Irkutsk, Russia before planning. Stable fields identify the place; confirm current transport, access and opening details with official sources.
01What the data says — and does not say
This page separates the checked GeoNames row for Irkutsk—623,869, Asia/Irkutsk, and source coordinates—from live travel claims. Those fields identify and compare the record; they do not prove current transport, accessibility, census totals, or a City Atlas Club visit.
Wikidata's localized description: capital city of Irkutsk Oblast, Siberia, in eastern Russia.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Irkutsk is GeoNames ID 2023469. Its recorded administrative path is Irkutskiy Rayon → Irkutsk Oblast → Russia, and GeoNames classifies the place as a first-order administrative seat. Irkutsk occurs once as a primary city label in this atlas sample; the numeric ID remains the durable source key if names change. The city row itself was updated 2026-04-14; that date belongs to the source record, not to every transport or visitor detail in the real destination.
Within the fixed 1,206-record atlas, Irkutsk ranks 895 by recorded population. Inside the 39 selected Russia entries it ranks 23; inside the 125 entries in its broad region it ranks 74. Its 623,869 population value is 0.96 times the 648,213 median for the country cohort and 0.94 times the 664,046 regional median. Irkutsk sits in the lower half of this atlas's selected Russia entries. Irkutsk's recorded value stays within one quarter of the country-cohort median used here. These comparisons describe this selected dataset only; they are not current census rankings or official urban-area boundaries.
Irkutsk's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Ulaanbaatar at 521.691 km with 844,818 recorded people; Krasnoyarsk at 847.01 km with 1,090,811 recorded people; Novokuznetsk at 1,155.819 km with 539,616 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 634.128 km. Compared with Ulaanbaatar, Irkutsk's recorded population is 0.74 times as large. Against Irkutsk, Ulaanbaatar follows Ulaanbaatar → Mongolia in the source. Its point has lower latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the selected Mongolia cohort rather than Russia, uses Asia/Ulaanbaatar instead of Asia/Irkutsk, and carries capital of a political entity rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is above Irkutsk's. Against Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk follows Krasnoyarsk Krai → Russia in the source. Its point has higher latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected Russia cohort, uses Asia/Krasnoyarsk instead of Asia/Irkutsk, and carries the same first-order administrative seat class. Its recorded population is above Irkutsk's. Against Irkutsk, Novokuznetsk follows Kuzbass → Russia in the source. Its point has higher latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected Russia cohort, uses Asia/Novokuznetsk instead of Asia/Irkutsk, and carries second-order administrative seat rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is below Irkutsk's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 1,180 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Irkutsk's nearest-coordinate gap belongs to the wider half of atlas distances. This pattern can reveal whether other catalog references are geographically close, but it cannot establish whether a border crossing is possible or practical, or whether rail, road, fare, or journey-time connections exist. Read as one record signature, GeoNames 2023469, the coordinate pair 52.2957 / 104.2908, country rank 23 of 39, and neighbor GeoNames 2028462 at 521.691 km bind Irkutsk to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Irkutsk's reference point is 52.2957° north and 104.2908° east. The IANA identifier Asia/Irkutsk is shared by 1 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPLA is shared by 429 rows. Irkutsk's row carries both second- and first-order administrative labels. Irkutsk's point falls in the higher-latitude coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Irkutsk's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Irkutsk, so the profile preserves that missing value instead of guessing terrain. Together these fields form a reproducible identity check for this page, not a claim about walkability, climate or accessibility.
03Nearby atlas references
Irkutsk's closest other entries in this atlas are Ulaanbaatar (521.691 km), Krasnoyarsk (847.01 km), Novokuznetsk (1,155.819 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Irkutsk, confirm changing decisions with current first-party sources:
Read how City Atlas Club verifies changing travel facts →05Sources and freshness
GeoNames updated the row 2026-04-14; the atlas checked the dataset 2026-08-04. Available Wikidata fields were verified in the same run.
GeoNames data: CC BY 4.0. Wikidata labels and descriptions: CC0 1.0.