Which country has the largest population of brown bears?

Russia has the largest population of brown bears.

Russia is estimated to have roughly 120,000 to 130,000 brown bears, more than any other country. The largest concentration lies east of the Ural Mountains, especially across the vast forests of Siberia, where extensive habitat supports large and comparatively continuous populations.

Brown bears have one of the widest distributions of any living bear. They occur across Eurasia and North America, in habitats ranging from temperate forests and mountain regions to coastal areas. Russia’s enormous land area and extensive northern forests give it a decisive advantage over countries such as the United States and Canada.

The United States still has a substantial population, largely in Alaska, while Canada supports brown bears across parts of western and northern regions. Finland is home to only a few thousand brown bears, making it important regionally but nowhere near Russia’s total. Another common source of confusion is the Kodiak bear: it is a large brown-bear subspecies found on Alaska’s Kodiak Archipelago, not a separate species or a rival national population.