Natural Decline of Russian Population 30 Percent Greater This Year than Last

Paul Goble

            Staunton, November 7 – Because the number of deaths in Russia continues to exceed the number of births, the natural decline of the country’s population fell 30 percent more during the first nine months of 2019 compared to the decline in the same period a year earlier. Immigration compensated for only 76 percent of this number.

            In an article entitled “Russia’s Demographic Cross Again Hangs Over Russia like the Sword of Damocles,” the RM telegram channel says that this decline not only cast doubts on Putin’s achievements as a leader but recalls the precipitous declines of the 1990s (https://t.me/russmal/253 reposted at iarex.ru/news/72126.html).

            “This is very, very sad,” the telegram channel continues, especially at a time of major geopolitical transformations and technological change. But it warns that “it is impossible to correct this situation by purely monetary means.  People will not give birth for money: maternal capital has exhausted its potential and new payments won’t change anything.”

            “The cause of the demographic pit” Russia and other developed societies find themselves in, RM says, “is out heads.” And to get out of it, there must a change in the values people have, something possible only by promoting the acquisition of ideals which will inspire Russian women to live and develop.

            Other outlets are drawing similarly dramatic conclusions from the new numbers.  The Accounting Chamber says that they show that the optimism about Russia’s demographic future that arose in  the first years of this century no longer is justified or widely held (newizv.ru/news/society/07-11-2019/naselenie-rossii-s-nachala-goda-sokratilos-na-52-tysyach-chelovek).

            The Chamber has released a report which says that “the natural loss of the population which has been accelerating for the fourth year in a row is creating significant risks for the realization of the national goal of securing a stable natural growth in the total population of the Russian Federation.”

            The economic development ministry says that these demographic trends are leading to an aging of the Russian population, a worsening of its age structure, and a reduction in the number of women in the prime child-bearing cohort, a development that will only further depress the number of births in the future.

            The ministry adds that it had been hoped that the natural decrease could be more than compensated by immigration, but unfortunately, it has become clear that ever fewer people in other countries want to move to Russia rather than to “other, more attractive countries.” Unless that changes, Russia’s population will continue to decline and at accelerating rates.