Paul Goble
Staunton, Jan. 29 – Rosstat, the Russian government’s statistical arm which has in recent years cut back dramatically on the amount of demographic data is releases, has prepared a report showing that the situation there may be even more dire than critics have suggested up to now, Vedomosti journalists who have seen the report say.
Among the developments the Moscow newspaper relates from that Rosstat study (edomosti.ru/society/articles/2026/01/29/1172461-rosstat-chislo-statsionarnih-mest-dlya-rozhenits-dostiglo-minimuma), the following are especially important because they point to a continuing and long term demographic decline:
· The number of maternity beds in medical institutions has fallen to the lowest level in the post-Soviet period, with 14.2 beds per 10,000 women compared to 34.1 in 1990, a falloff that has accelerated in the last several years when the number of such beds fell from 52,300 in 2022 to 48,700 in 2024, the last year for which statistics have been released.
· The number of women giving birth has also been falling. In 1990, 1.89 million Russian women gave birth; in 2024, that figure was 1.12 million, a decline of 40.8 percent.
· As is happening in many countries, the length of time women are kept in hospital after giving birth has fallen from seven to ten days to only two to three, reflecting a more efficient handling of birthing.
· Maternity wars and hospitals are being closed in remote and underpopulated areas and being sent instead to regional state hospitals, often 90 minutes of more from their homes. According to one observer, this trend however economically justified means that “healthcare has moved further away from the population.”
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