Russia's area is approximately 17.07 million square kilometers, which puts the country in first place in the world in this indicator. The population density in Russia is 8.6 people per square kilometer, which is one of the lowest on the planet. In terms of the number of inhabitants (144 million people), the country ranks 9th in the world, but the demography of Russia is currently going through a difficult stage.
General information about the population of Russia
Speaking about the demography of modern Russia, we note that according to the 2002 census, 145 million people lived in the country, of which 103 million were in the European part of the country and 42 million in Asia. The last census of 2010 revealed that 143.84 million people live in the country: 105.21 million in the European part; 37.63 million in Asian.
The demography of Russia is ethnically diverse: the majority of the country's population belongs to the Eastern Slavs, about 8.4% belong to the Turkic peoples, 3.3% Caucasians, 1.9% come from the Urals and other national minorities.
RussianEmpire at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries
Let's consider the question of the history of the development of demography in Russia, starting from the end of the 19th century. Under the tsarist regime, the territory of the Russian Empire constantly increased. With the accession of new territories, more and more peoples were included in the state. This process continued until the beginning of the 20th century. As a result, at the end of the 19th century, according to the 1897 census, 129 million people lived in the Russian Empire.
During the late XIX - early XX century, the evolution of demography in Russia was favorable. The main feature of this period is the high birth rate, which covered the high death rate. The natural population growth in these years was 1.6-1.7%. By the end of 1913, the population of the Russian Empire lived mainly in rural areas, with only 15% urbanization.
Migration processes in Tsarist Russia
Migration processes, which had a serious impact on the demography of Russia in the late 19th - early 20th centuries, are primarily associated with the inclusion of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Caucasus into the Russian Empire and the development of close ties with the republics of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and others), as well as with the B altic territories (Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania). It should be noted that almost all territories annexed to the Russian Empire were sparsely populated, which stimulated waves of migrants from central Russia to new free lands.
According to the research of V. M. Moiseenko, from 1796 to 1916 from the European part of Russiamigrated to its borders about 12.6 million people. If we subtract migrants to Siberia, the Far East and the North Caucasus from this number and take into account only immigration to the nearest European countries, then this number will be about 7 million people. These conclusions confirm the following figures regarding the history of the development of demography in Russia: from 1863 to 1897, the population of the European part of Russia grew from 61.1 million to 93.4 million people, that is, the growth rate was 1.2% per year. At the same time, in the Asian territory of the Russian Empire, this figure was 3.9% per year (from 8.8 million to 32.9 million people).
Soviet Russia
The Soviet stage (1917-1991 years of the existence of the Soviet Union), although it takes a relatively short period of time, is an important component in the issue of Russia's historical demography. This period is characterized by a catastrophic impact on the country's population of a number of political, military and economic events:
- end of WWI;
- 1917 revolution and subsequent civil war;
- famine of 1921-1923 and 1933;
- Stalinist political repressions of the 1930s-1940s;
- war with Finland;
- World War II;
- famine of 1947;
- participation in external local military conflicts, for example, in Afghanistan.
Among all these events, two world wars, Stalin's purges and famine should be specially noted, which had a negative impact on the growth of the country's population.
It should also be noted the phenomenon of forced emigration during this period of tens of thousands of Russians to European countries and America.
Interwar period
This difficult period for the demography of Russia is characterized by the loss of 2.3 million people in the First World War and about 0.7 million people in the revolution and civil war. These events led to an imbalance between the male and female population of the country. Thus, according to the 1926 census, the female population exceeded the male population by 3 million people. If we add to these figures a lot of human deaths from famine and epidemics, we get that in the period from 1917 to 1926, about 7 million people died. However, the high birth rate in these years contributed to the relatively rapid recovery of the lost population.
The period from 1927 to 1940 is characterized by the development of industrialization in the USSR and the establishment of collective farms (collective farms). The centralization of power and the planned economy of these years led to the forced migration of the active working population from Ukraine, Belarus and European Russia to Siberia and Central Asia. According to general estimates, for the said period, forced migration affected 29 million people. All this led to a sharp decline in the birth rate in the 1930s.
It should also be noted the famine of 1932-1933, as a result of which the population of Russia lost 3 million people.
Speaking about the demography of Russia over the years, we note that in the period from 1917 to 1940 the country's population increased from 93.6 million to 111.1 million people, a large contribution to this increase was mademigration processes from the Union republics to Russia.
World War II and Post-War
The demographics of Russia during the Second World War experienced the most severe blow in the history of the country. So, according to official data, the USSR lost about 27 million people killed and missing, of which 14 million were in Russia. Low birth rate, high death rate and famine led to a natural decrease in the population of Russia by 10 million people.
In the first years after the war, about 3 million people returned from prisons and German concentration camps, 60% of them remained in the Soviet Union.
As a result, in 1940 the population of Russia was 111.1 million people, in 1945 it was 101.4 million people, and remained the same until 1950. Slow growth only begins in the early 1950s.
Demography of the population of Russia from the 1950s to 1991
This time is characterized by the restoration of a high birth rate in Russia, as well as a decrease in mortality rates due to the development of medicine and the appearance of antibiotics in mass quantities. As a result, already in 1955 the population of the country reached the pre-war level and continued to grow due to natural increase until the mid-1970s.
As for the migration processes in Russia, in the 1960s the situation began to change radically. So, if before that time there was a constant stable outflow of the population from Russia to the alliedRepublic, now there are migration flows from the periphery to Russia, which is associated with the emergence of unemployment in the republics of the Caucasus and Central Asia due to the rapid growth of the local population.
The first republic that the Russian population began to leave was Georgia. Then this process affected other union republics, for example, in the period from 1979 to 1988, 700 thousand people migrated from Kazakhstan to Russia, and about 800 thousand people from all other Asian republics. It should be noted that the emigration of the Russian population from the territories of the Soviet republics was associated not only with economic reasons, but by the end of the existence of the USSR, relations between Russia and other republics began to worsen.
Despite the complexity of the demographic processes in Russia during the Soviet era, by the early 1990s, there was a positive trend in the population of the country, and in 1991, 148.7 million people lived in Russia.
The demographic crisis of the late 1990s - early 2000s
Speaking about the demography of modern Russia, one should note the difficult situation in the first decade after the collapse of the USSR. Thus, according to the 2002 census, the population of Russia decreased by 1.8 million people in comparison with 1989, which is associated with a sharp decline in the birth rate, as well as increased mortality rates. Male mortality in the 1990s and 2000s was particularly high, with alcohol abuse and a high number of homicides and suicides considered to be the main causes. As a result, the average life expectancy of men in Russia at the beginningThe 2000s was only 61.4 years, while women lived an average of 73.9 years. Such a large gap in life expectancy between women and men is hard to find in any other modern country.
Statistics on the years of demography in Russia shows that the decline in the country's population continued until 2009. From this moment the situation begins to stabilize mainly due to immigration to the territory of Russia.
Emigration and immigration after the collapse of the USSR
The collapse of the USSR had a strong impact on the dynamics of Russia's demographics. At the same time, both the processes of immigration from Russia and the processes of emigration to the country intensified. In particular, about 30% of all emigrants came to Russia from Kazakhstan, about 15% from Uzbekistan.
As for the processes of migration from Russia, due to the difficult economic situation in it, Germany should be noted as the main immigration countries (from 1997 to 2010, 386.6 thousand Russians left for this country), Israel (73, 7K), USA (54.4K), Finland (11.7K) and Canada (10.8K).
Policy measures to boost fertility
Russia's population stabilization is currently supported by positive migration from the former Soviet republics, however, it is clear that decisive political measures are needed to promote natural population growth.
In this regard, the Russian government has developed andcontinues to develop social programs that are designed to stimulate an increase in the birth rate in the country. So, in 2005, the He alth program was launched, which is designed to solve the problems of the physical he alth of the nation. In 2007, a program was launched that provides economic assistance to families with 2 or more children. Since 2011, the "Housing" program has been launched, the purpose of which is to facilitate the acquisition of housing by young families with children.
Despite all the measures taken by the government, the problems of demography in Russia remain relevant. Thus, the average birth rate, which shows the number of children born to one woman on average, for 2016 in Russia was 1.76, while for the full reproduction of the population it should be more than 2.
Population projections
Despite the fact that in 2013 the number of births per 1,000 inhabitants of the country equaled the number of deaths, the low average birth rate will lead to a decrease in the country's young population (from 15 to 30 years old) by 2025-2030 to 25 million people. For comparison, we note that this number in 2012 was 31.6 million people.
According to many estimates, if a large family is not revived in the next decade, then by the end of the 21st century the number of Russian residents will decrease by 1/3 and amount to 80 million people.
