Ethnic Immigrants in Major Russian Cities have Fertility Rates More than Twice as High as Those of Ethnic Russians There, Academy of Sciences Study Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 7 – Ethnic minorities in major Russian cities are rapidly increasing their shares of the population there because on average the women in these communities have fertility rates more than twice as high as those of indigenous ethnic Russians, according to a new study released by the Vavilov Institute of General Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

            The study found that ethnic Russian women in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Novosibirsk have between one and two children per woman per lifetime, their non-Russian counterparts in immigrant communities, both from abroad and from non-Russian republics within Russia, have fertility rates of between three and four (mk.ru/social/2025/11/06/genetiki-soobshhili-o-tom-kak-v-stolice-menyaetsya-populyacionnyy-sostav.html).

            This means not only that the non-Russians will quickly increase their share of the population even if in-migration were to be significantly reduced but also that there will likely be more inter-ethnic marriages and a shift in the ethnic and confessional composition of Russia not only in these cities but more generally, the authors of the study suggest.

            Such trends are also likely to exacerbate the feelings of ethnic Russian nationalists who fear the impact of rising percentages of non-Russians in their cities and increases in the number of intermarriages between Russians and non-Russians as a result and especially this evidence that Russian cities and Russia itself are becoming ever less Russian.