Sharya is a Russian city (since 1938), the administrative centre of the Sharya District in the Kostroma Region.

The city population makes 23 866 people (as of 2015). Sharya stands on the banks of the Vetluga River (inflow of Volga), 328 km away from Kostroma. Sharya Station is a large railway junction of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Sharya is equidistant (~ 300 km) from the regional centers Kostroma (to the west), Nizhny Novgorod (to the south), Kirov (to the east) and Velikiy Ustyug (to the north).

Today Sharya is a well-developed industrial city. Its modern industry is represented with large enterprises of forestry and wood industry, which entail development of timber enterprises and furniture production.