Russia's population falls

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW: Russia's population shrank by nearly half a million over the first half of the year, registering the highest fall rate during ten years of the downward trend. The net population loss was 458,400 people over the first six months of 2001, 23,000 more than during the same period last year, the State Statistics Committee reported. The country's population has declined by just over 7 million, to 144.4 million, since the Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991 and Russia embarked on market-oriented reforms. The ensuing economic crisis halved the birth rate and led to soaring death incidence. The tendency has begun to improve this year, but there are still twice as many deaths as births, with 1.13 million people dying compared to 644,200 born. Russia's population decline has increased this year due to falling immigration to this country from the former Soviet republics, as authorities stepped up control on illegal migrants. To counter the growing population loss, the Government announced last month that it would take measures to encourage immigration by ethnic Russians. According to U.N. estimates, Russia's population will fall by nearly 23 million, to just over 121 million by mid-21st Century.

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Section  : International
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