Located near the Mir open pit diamond mine, Mirny was founded in 1955 as a community for mine workers. Mirny received city status on April 3, 1959.
As of January 1, 2009, the city has a population of 36,563. Lena station, the nearest railway station, is 1,193 kilometres from the city, and Lensk, the nearest port is 241 kilometres away. The distance between Mirny and Yakutia's capital of Yakutsk is 1,207 kilometres.
The municipal economy is largely based on mining (81.3%), which includes the extraction of diamonds, and oil and gas. Transportation and communications account for 11% of the economy, construction for 8%, and healthcare and social services for 4%.
By far the most important enterprise in the town is the Alrosa company, which provides jobs for 49.5% of the working population.
The city has a well-developed social infrastructure, which includes nine schools, seven branches of institutions of higher education, and 12 pre-school institutions. .
At present, the number of people leaving the city has been growing. Three hundred and eight people left the city over the last six months.
The global economic crisis has affected people's lives. The monthly cost of a basket of food items was 4,187.25 roubles, which is 108.48% higher than in December 2008.
Since the beginning of 2009, 1,092 people have applied for assistance in looking for a new eligible job from local employment centres. As of August 1, the number of people registered as unemployed stands at 373, 276 of whom receive unemployment benefits.
As of August 1, there are 70 unfilled jobs in need of workers (all for blue-collar jobs) in Mirny, while 501 people are involved in public works.