Demographic change in Russia

The Russian Federation is a European country, and its population patterns, in a number of important respects, are today—in this post Cold War era—unmistakably European. Low fertility; the trend away from births within marriage; significant influxes of immigration from abroad; and pronounced population ageing: all these characteristics of the current Russian demographic profile will sound immediately familiar to other European audiences. But there are also important and defining features of the contemporary Russian demographic situation that differentiate Russia’s current profile and future prospects from those of the more Western portion of the European continent.

• The first of these is Russia’s exceptionally low level of fertility.

• The second and arguably much more consequential distinction between Russian demographic patterns and those that typify Europe falls in the realm of mortality and low life expectancy.
  

Taken together, Russia’s low fertility and its brutally high levels of mortality combine to fashion a third demographic trend for the country that is exceptional within the current European context: marked and ongoing depopulation. In the twenty-plus years since the end of the USSR, Russia has recorded over 12 million more death than births.

• Russia’s Mountaining Demography Challenges
  (N. Eberstadt, H. Groth & J. Twigg, American Enterprise Institute, February 2013)
• The Russian Federation in an Era of Demographic Crisis: The Special Challenges of Population Aging and Social Security Policy.
  (H. Groth & N. Eberstadt, WDA - HSG Discussion Paper Series, 2010)
• Social Security and the Challenge of Demographic Change. The Russian Federation: Confronting the special challenges of ageing and social security policy in an era of demographic crisis.
  (H. Groth & N. Eberstadt, International Social Security Review, AEI, 2010)
• Slipping Growth: With few born and far too many dying, Russia is caught in a demographic straitjacket.
  (H. Groth & N. Eberstadt, The Berlin Journal, 2009, S. 19-21)
• Too Sick to Prosper - Russia's Ongoing Health Crisis Obstructs Economic Growth and Development.
  (H. Groth & N. Eberstadt, WDA - HSG Letters 2009)
• Russia's Peacetime Demographic Crisis: Dimensions, Causes, Implications.
  (N. Eberstadt, NBR Project paper, National bureau of asian research, 2010)