Russia Has Become Depopulated: The Authorities Are Panicking

Rosstat has closed all data on demographics.

The Russian authorities have closed almost all demographic statistics. This week's report on Russia's socio-economic situation for May did not include the usual information on natural population growth, the number of births and deaths, marriages and divorces, migration and even population size, according to The Moscow Times.

"The 'Demography' section is simply missing" from the report, MMI analysts are outraged: "It's one thing to close data that could be a reason to impose sanctions. But it is quite another thing when they close the data that concerns only us, Russians."

The detailed statistics Rosstat has already closed. The report "On the natural movement of population" for the first quarter and March, published in May, contained only general figures, without a breakdown by region. Since then, the section has not been updated, the data for April is not there - not even such data.

Now, as MMI analysts put it, "an even more terrible thing has happened": even the most general figures have become unavailable. "We have been completely deprived of information about the number of people in the country, how many are born, how many die," they state, calling on the government to "either explain why this data is closed or resume its publication."

The latest available data are as follows: as of April 1, the population numbered 146.1 million, down 61,100 since the beginning of the year. In three months 288.8 thousand people were born, 471.8 thousand died, natural population decline amounted to 183.3 thousand people, which was 2/3 compensated by migration growth: 121.9 thousand people.

The war sharply worsened the already difficult demographic situation in Russia. Rosstat predicted that by 2046, Russia's population would shrink to 138.8 million people: natural decline would exceed 12 million, but would be partially offset by migration growth. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin has set unattainable goals: to stop natural population decline (first by 2024, then the deadline was moved to 2030), to sharply increase fertility and life expectancy.

Data on the latter have also virtually ceased to be published: for 2024, Rosstat reported only that life expectancy (LE) amounted to 72.84 years. Data on regions, the dynamics of LLL for a rolling year, etc. are no longer disclosed, as well as information on mortality - age structure, causes. Fertility this year every month birth rate broke anti-records since the turn of the XVII-XIX centuries, noted demographer Alexei Raksha.

The problem is not in the numbers themselves, but in the actions of officials from whom demographic achievements are demanded. "If there is such an inadequate reaction of the authorities to negative, but not yet very significant statistics, it means that the degree of demographic hysteria in the ministries has reached epic proportions," Raksha wrote.

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