According to the minister of the committee on nationalities, Vladimir Zorin, the birth rate of Russia has beaten a previous record set 25 years ago, with an increase of 122.000 births (8.3%) compared to 2006, to reach a record of 1.6 millions newborns.
Second and third birth has increased by 33% in the beginning of 2007 to 42% at the end of the year.
Vladimir Zorin, told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday that according to the preliminary results of the all Russian census the population of Russia is more than 145 million people.
Mr. Zorin pointed out that experts had though it would be 143 million people.
The head of the committee of nationalities affairs stressed that “despite all difficulties this country is facing now, its population is growing.” According to him, the highest natality has been registered in the Central and South Federal constituencies, Moscow, Daghestan and Chechnya.
After his meeting with the Russian President, Mr. Zorin said that Vladimir Putin had instructed the committee to specify federal programs taking into account the state concept of national policy. He also recalled that it had been adopted in 1996 and it did not take into account all changes that had occurred, in particular, migration.
According to data of the State Committee of the Russian Federation on Statistics, about 7 million people entered Russia, while 3 million people left the country and 27 million people changed their residences inside the country in the last decade.
Russia’s health ministry predicted that the birth rate in Russia was set to increase by 26% by the end of 2009 as a result of measures taken to resolve the demographic problem.
Olga Sharapova, the director of the maternity department in the Health and Social Development Ministry, said a set of measures had been introduced in Russia since early 2006 to alleviate the problem, including maternity hospital funding and capital payouts ($9,500) for the birth of two or more children.
But Nikolai Volodin, a senior sociologist, said Monday Russia’s population will fall to 135 million by 2016, from the current 142.2 million.
Volodin, a deputy head of the Federal Service for the Oversight of Public Health and Social Affairs, said social upheaval, low birth rates, the proportion of families with only one child, high male mortality rates, mainly caused by accidents, and a decline in internal migration were the main reasons for the population decline.
However, the expert said the average life span for Russians had increased slightly from 64.9 years in 2003 to 65.3 years in 2005, but it was still far less than in Japan, the United States, China and some European countries.
Russia is faced with an acute demographic problem, and the government is implementing a number of programs designed to increase the birth rate and attract more migrants to alleviate the problem.
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