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Russia's population likely to dwindle 2.5 times
50 years later
StranaRu, June 14, 2001
If the demographic situation in Russia fails to improve
soon, its population will be down from the present 144.7 million to 132
million by 2015 and to 55 million 50 years later, Natalya Rimashevskaya,
director of the Institute of Social and Economic Problems of the
Population, Russian Academy of Sciences, told a press conference in Moscow
May 29.
"The number of children and young people in Russia
has dwindled by six million in the last 10 years," she said. Besides,
as far as she knows, only 40% of children are born absolutely healthy,
while another 30% are health risks. In the last ten years, the number of
young age invalids has grown from 150,000 to almost 600,000.
She also pointed to a rise in drug addiction among the
young people. According to her forecast, there would be over one million
drug addicts in Russia in 2002 aged mostly 12 to 14 years.
She stressed at the same time that in accordance with
the statistics for the first two months of 2001, the natural population
decline in Russia had somewhat slowed down, the mortality rate dropped,
and the birth rates showed an upward trend. But it was still too early to
speak about positive tendencies, she said.
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