Ufa is the capital of Bashkortostan and a major administrative, industrial, cultural and scientific centre.
The city is located on the banks of the Belaya River, at the confluence of the Dyoma and the Ufa rivers, on the steeply-sloping undulating Pribelskaya plane 100 kilometres west of the southern Urals. The city has a temperate, continental climate and is located in the forest-steppe belt.
Ufa has the area of 753.7 square kilometres and stretches 70 kilometres from south-west to north-east in the area between the Belaya and Ufa rivers. The city has the third longest linear expansion of all Russian cities, behind only to Sochi and Volgograd.
With a population of over one million people, Ufa is the11th most populous city in Russia. A total of 25.4% of the population of Bashkortostan's and 42% of the republic's urban residents live in Ufa.