Paul Goble
Staunton, Aug. 7 – Russian flight from Primorsky Kray in the Russian Far East to other parts of Russia continues to increase but that to other countries has fallen sharply, the regional statistics agency says, contributing along with more deaths than births to a decline of population of the region to 1.8 million as of the middle of this year.
At the same time, the agency says, arrivals from both other parts of the Russian Federation and abroad have fallen, the former by 5.5 percent from a year earlier and the latter by almost 50 percent. And at the same time, deaths among residents exceeded births by almost two to one as well (primamedia.ru/news/1814174/).
And perhaps especially disturbing is the fact that deaths among newborns have risen by more than 20 percent over the last year to 6.1 deaths per 1000 births in the first year of life during the first six months of this year, up from 4.9 for the corresponding period in 2023, Primstat reports.
These figures are likely typical of many predominantly ethnic Russian regions but they are especially concerning in border regions like Primorsky Kray where the influx of Chinese and Korean workers has been high and where Moscow has worked hard to try to attract ethnic Russians and even Central Asian migrant workers in recent months.
They serve as a reminder of something else as well: Even as Rosstat, the Moscow statistical agency, cuts back on the publication of such negative statistics, regional statistical agencies continue to issue them because local officials desperately need the information to do their jobs.
Consequently, those who want to follow demographic and other trends in Russia today need to look at the various regional statistical agencies rather than just at Rosstat. That is more difficult to do, but it is critical if one is to understand what is going on as the Putin regime cuts back statistics issued in the capital.
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