From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 2/24/2006 2:59 PM
KOMMERSANT Rubricated Docs, FEBRUARY 23, 2006
Open Gallery... Photo: Alexey Kudenko
Russia's Population Down to 142.7 Million
With regard to migration, the number of permanent residents of Russia lowered by 735,500 in 2005 to 142.7 million as of January 1, 2006, the Federal Statistics Service reported.
Past year, 1,460,100 babies were born in Russia and 2,303,100 people died there. What's more, the newborn number shed by 42,400 on year, and the death number widened by 7,700 vs. 2004. Therefore, the natural loss of the population was 843,000 in 2004 compared with 792,900 a year earlier.
On average, the death number is 1.6 fold above the number of newborns in Russia. The indicator goes up to 2 to 2.5 fold in 23 regions of the country.
The natural growth of the population was registered only in 16 regions of Russia.
In number, the population of Russia has been losing roughly 900,000 on year in the recent decade with the overall loss of 9 million.
The families with a single child account for 67 percent of all families with children. Overall, the number of children went down by nearly 8 million over the last decade. There are more and more broken families in Russia. In 92 percent of such families, it is the mother, who brings up children. The overall number of children brought up in broken families has reached 760,000.
Apart from the natural loss of the population, the problem of abortions is hot in Russia. Russia registered 1,611,000 abortions past year, Health and Social Development Minister Mikhail Zurabov told the State Duma not long ago.
The good news is the number of abortions is going down in Russia. At least 2.3 million abortions were made in 1995, for instance.
In terms of quantity, the number of newborns has nearly equaled the number of abortions, Zurabov said, pointing out the ratio was 1:2 not in newborns favor in the mid.-1990s.
Another concern is the infant death - 15,500 babies annually die in Russia now.
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