Reported Life Expectancy Figures in Parts of Russia Unreliable Because of Data Shortcomings and Outright Falsification, ‘To Be Precise’ Portal Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 25 – Moscow has proudly noted that the residents of Moscow and the North Caucasus are among the most long-lived people on earth, but the statistics it bases this claim on are deeply flawed, demographers say, the result of shortcomings in the gathering of data and open manipulation by officials who seek more funds for their regions.

The To be Precise portal says that Russian officials claim that in 2023, life expectancy in Dagestan was 80.7 years, in Moscow, 80.3 years, and in Ingushetia, 79.5 years and that life expectancy in Moscow had grown by eight years for men and 5.4 years for women between 2002 and 2015 (tochno.st/materials/cto-obshhego-u-sardinii-okinavy-dagestana-i-moskvy-eto-golubye-zony-mesta-gde-liudi-anomalno-dolgo-zivut).

Moreover, these same officials said that since 2011, the life expectancy of an 80-year-old man in Moscow has been higher than that of an 80-year-old female resident of the capital, something not true of any other population group on earth as women invariably live longer than men do, the portal continues.

These errors have arisen, it says, for two reasons. On the one hand, the data sets are defective because people are often registered in one federal subject by live in another, leading to inadequate reporting and confusion. And on the other, officials routinely falsify the data to get more money from Moscow for pensions and other infrastructure older people need.

According to experts, To Be Precise says, the Moscow life expectancy figures for 80-year-olds need to be corrected with the figure for men reduced by two years and for women by 0.6 years and that for life expectancy at birth needs to be adjusted downward by 1.6 years for men and 0.4 years for women         .

The situation with regard to statistics about longevity is even worse in the North Caucasus, the portal continues. There, counting errors as a result of registration problems have been multiplied by outright falsification as republic officials seek to get more money from the center for pensioners they do not in fact have.