Our country is one of the few countries in the world where there is a low birth rate. In combination with high mortality, it has a negative impact on demographic indicators. In recent years, the birth rate in Russia has fallen sharply. Forecasts are also disappointing.
General information about the population of Russia
According to Rosstat, the population of Russia in 2018 amounted to 146 million 880 thousand 432 people. This figure puts our country in ninth place in terms of population in the world. The average population density in our country is 8.58 people. on 1 km 2.
Most of the residents are concentrated in the European territory of Russia (about 68%), although it is much smaller in area than Asian. This is clearly seen in the distribution of population density: in the west of the country it is 27 people. per 1 km 2, and in the center and in the east - only 3 people. on 1 km 2. The highest density value is recorded in Moscow - over 4626 people / 1 km 2, and the minimum - in the Chukotka District (below 0.07 people / 1 km 2).
The share of urban residents is 74.43 percent. There are 170 cities in Russia with a population of over 100, 000. In 15 of them, the population exceeds 1 million.
The birth rate in Russia is quite low.
In total, over 200 different nationalities can be found in the country. They are also called ethnic groups. The share of Russians is about 81 percent. Tatars (3.9%) are in second place, and Ukrainians are in third. About a percentage of the total population falls on such nationalities as the Chuvash, Bashkirs, Chechens, Armenians.
In Russia, the prevalence of the elderly population over people of working age is pronounced. The ratio of employed to pensioners in our country is 2.4 / 1, and, for example, in the USA, it is 4.4 / 1, in China - 3.5 / 1, and in Uganda - 9/1. The closest indicators in Greece: 2.5 / 1.
Demographic characteristics of Russia
For Russia, a gradual population decline is typical. In the 50s of the 20th century, natural growth was at the level of 15-20 people per 1000 inhabitants per year. There were many large families.
In the 60s he was rapidly falling, and in the 70-80s there were only a little more than 5 people.
A new sharp drop occurred in the early 90's, as a result of which it became negative and was at the level of minus 5-6 people per thousand inhabitants per year. In the mid-zero, the situation began to improve, and by 2013, the growth went into the positive zone. However, in recent years, the demographic situation has deteriorated again.
However, the dynamics of the birth rate in Russia and mortality are not always interconnected. Thus, the decline in fertility in the 60s did not lead to a change in the dynamics of mortality. At the same time, in the first half of the 90s, mortality increased sharply, but somewhat later than the birth rate. In the 2000s, fertility began to increase, but mortality continued to increase, but not so fast. From the mid-to-late 2000s, there was an improvement in all indicators: fertility was increasing, and mortality was falling. In recent years, the birth and death statistics in Russia have the following features: a sharp decrease in the birth rate is observed, but mortality continues to decrease.
In general, over the past 65 years, the birth rate has fallen by about half, and the mortality rate has not changed much.
The birth rate in Russia in recent decades
If you do not take the last 2 years, the overall picture of fertility reflects a sharp decline in the 90s and a gradual rise from the mid-2000s. There is a clear positive relationship between rural and urban populations, but the range of fluctuations is higher for rural areas. All this shows a graph of the birth rate in Russia by years.
The rapid decline in the indicator continued until 1993, the field of which slowed sharply. The bottom was reached in 1999. Then began a gradual increase in values that reached their maximum value in 2015. For the rural population, the maximum was reached a year earlier. Since there are more urban residents than rural residents, the average indicators more clearly reflect the dynamics of the urban population.
The dynamics of the population of Russia
The population is influenced not only by natural growth, but also by migration flows. Most migrants come from Central Asia. In recent years, refugees arriving from Ukraine have also affected the growth of the population of our country.
The total population of Russia increased until 1996, after which its steady decline began, which continued until 2010. Then growth resumed again.
General demographic situation
The demographic situation in Russia, according to UN estimates, meets the criteria for a demographic crisis. The average birth rate is 1.539. Mortality is traditionally high in Russia. A characteristic feature of our country is the sharp predominance of deaths from cardiovascular diseases over other causes, which is directly related to the destructive lifestyle of the majority of Russians. Malnutrition, physical inactivity, and smoking are common causes of death. The extremely unsatisfactory state of medicine, and in some places the depressing environmental situation, also affects. Drunkenness is prevalent in many regions.
In terms of life expectancy, Russia lags far behind all developed countries and even from a number of developing countries.
Fertility in Russia by region
The distribution of this indicator on the map of our country is rather uneven. The highest values are recorded in the east of the North Caucasus and in some areas in the south of Siberia. Here the birth rate reaches 25-26.5 people per thousand inhabitants per year.
The lowest rates are observed in the central regions of the European part of Russia. This is especially pronounced in the southeast of the Central Federal District and in some regions of the Volga region. In the very center, the situation is somewhat better, which is obviously due to the influence of Moscow. In general, the worst birth rates are observed in about the same regions where the maximum mortality rate is recorded.
Fertility in Russia in recent years
Since 2016, the country has experienced a sharp drop in fertility. The number of births this year was 10% less than in the same period last year, and in 2017, the birth rate in Russia showed the same decline in respect to 2016.
In the first 3 months of 2018, 391 thousand people were born in Russia, which is 21 thousand less than in January-March last year. However, in some regions the birth rate has increased slightly. These are the Altai Republic, Chechnya, Ingushetia, North Ossetia, Kalmykia and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug.
At the same time, mortality, on the contrary, decreased - over the year by 2%.
The reasons for the decline in the birth rate may be natural: the number of women of childbearing age is gradually decreasing, which is an echo of the recession of the 90s. Therefore, a decrease in absolute fertility is estimated at a lower value - 7.5%, and it may reflect a change in the socio-economic situation in the country in recent years.
Due to the low birth rate, natural growth was also low. Although in 2017, 63.6 thousand people died less than a year earlier, the decrease in the number of births amounted to 203 thousand people. At the same time, the total population increased slightly due to increased migration flow from Central Asia and to a lesser extent from Ukraine. Thus, the birth rate in Russia in 2017 and 2018 was significantly reduced.
