Samara Oblast, a Predominantly Ethnic Russian Region, had Nearly Twice as Many Deaths as Births in 2025, Officials Acknowledge

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 13 – Rosstat is publishing ever less data on demographic trends, few of which are now positive in the Russian Federation, especially in overwhelmingly ethnic Russian areas. But occasionally regional officials do respond to queries from local deputies, and the numbers they do release call attention to just how bad the situation is.

            In Samara Oblast, Mikhail Abdalkin, a regional KPRF deputy, asked the local health ministry about the demographic situation in that overwhelmingly ethnic Russian region in 2025 (kasparovru.com/material.php?id=696604E9AB269&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook).

            The answers he got are deeply troubling. Last year, 16,958 people were born in Samara oblast, but 33,258 died, nearly twice as many; and life expectancy had fallen to 61. Despite that, the regional ministry, in response to Putin’s healthcare optimization program, plans to close 26 more medical facilities in the year ahead, cutbacks that will likely make these figures still worse.

            Samara residents say, Abdalkin says, that the closure of medical points has led to a decline in healthcare and more premature deaths, pointing on that ambulances come only with great delays and then often must travel for hours to get treatment, a situation that means many patients do not survive.