The territory of the region was populated ages ago by our ancestors — trypillians, who were the first in Europe to sow seeds of the well-known Ukrainian bread.

The Kyiv region was established on the 27th of February 1932. It is located in the middle reaches of the Dnipro River with its tributaries — the Ros, Desna, Irpin, Trubizh, Prypyat etc. The length of the Dnipro River within the boundaries of the region is 246 km. 177 rivers intersect the Kyiv area; it has 13 reservoirs, over 2000 ponds, approximately 750 small lakes. The region borders on the Poltava, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Homel (Byelorus') regions. It is divided into 25 districts, 25 cities and towns, among them 11 towns of regional importance (the town of Prypyat included) and 14 towns of district importance, 29 settlements, 1132 villages. The total number of inhabited localities amounts to 1186.

There are 686 local councils in the region including: regional —1, district — 25, town (of regional importance) — 11, town (of district importance) — 14, settlement — 29, village — 607.

On the 1st of January 2004, the population numbered 1795.3 thousand, with the urban population making up 1047.8 thousand and the rural — 747.8 thousand people. The population density is 64 people per 1 sq km.

The number of workers aged 15—70 engaged in economic activity amounted to 753,7 thousand people, among them: employed in industry — 18.5%, in agriculture, forestry and fishery — 30.8 %.

Physiography and climate. The surface of the region is mainly flat. The northern part of the region is located in the Polissia Lowland, the eastern one lies in the Dnipro Lowland. The most elevated and broken southern and southwestern portions are situated in the Dnipro Upland.

The region owns 130 territories and objects of the natural preserve fund (its area is 31.3 thousand hectares). The national natural preserve fund contains 14 conservation areas, 2 monuments of nature, 1 dendrologic park, 3 parks — monuments of landscape gardening.

The climate is temperate — continental. The average temperature of January is — -5.6°C, that of July is — +19.3°C. The yearly rainfall is 570—610 mm.

Mineral Resources. The Kyiv region is rich mainly in building materials: granite, gneiss, kaolin, clay, quartz sand. There are also deposits of peat and mineral springs. Besides, considerable reserves of mineral resources are unexplored and, provided a proper investing in their prospecting, they could be used for business' development, especially in construction, chemical production etc.