Russia’s population has shrunk by ‘record’ margin this year OLASMEDIA TV NEWSThis is what we have for you today:
Russian population contracted with a record margin of about 86,000 people between January and May, the Moscow Times online newspaper reported Friday, citing new data from the Russian statistics agency Rosstat.
The decline in Russia’s population in the first four months of this year surpassed a “previous record contraction of 57,000 people per month in 2002, when the Russian population shrank to 145.3 million from nearly 146 million the previous year,” the Moscow Times reported. on July. 29.
The newspaper, quote government data additionally revealed the following about Russia’s demographics on Friday:
Rosstat’s data showed that Russia’s natural population — a figure that counts recorded deaths and births, excluding the effects of migration — declined by 355,000 between January and May 2022.
Despite the Russian invasion of Ukraine which, according to recent outside estimates, has resulted in the deaths of nearly 40,000 Russian troops, Rosstat data showed the death toll fell by 36,100 compared to January-May 2021 and a total of 878,300 in January. May 2022.
The number of births also fell by 31,100 and reached 523,200 in the same period. An estimated 75,300 migrants have now left Russia, or 5,000 fewer than in January-May 2021.
Rosstat’s latest demographic analysis put the Russian population at 145.1 million. This figure represented a decrease of 430,000 people from Russia’s last population figure of 145,530,000.
“The rate of Russian population decline has nearly doubled since 2021 and nearly tripled since 2020,” the Moscow Times’ Russian language service said. noticed on Friday.
The Russian population has grown steadily diminishing over the past three decades, according to a French demographer named Laurent Chalard.
Speaking to Agence France-Presse (AFP) on May 24, he noted that Russia’s population decline has been recorded regularly “since 1991, when the Soviet Union fell and Russia had 148.2 million inhabitants within its far-reaching borders.”
“By 2021, that number had fallen to 146.1 million, according to the Russian statistics agency Rosstat. What is even more striking is that, according to demographic forecasts, the country’s population will continue to decline by 2050, reaching between 130 and 140 million inhabitants,” AFP noted at the time.
While Russia’s demographic crisis seems to have settled in recent decades, the country’s latest war with neighboring Ukraine – which launched on Feb. 24 – and the Chinese coronavirus pandemic have both likely contributed to declining population statistics.
“[Russian leader Vladimir] Putin has pursued a comprehensive migration policy by opening Russia’s borders to migrant workers who often come from Central Asia, facilitating naturalization procedures for Russian speakers and issuing Russian passports to residents of neighboring countries,” AFP said. “But these migration movements were stopped dead by Covid-19 [Chinese coronavirus].”