Russia’s population decline reaches unprecedented levels
Russia continues to fall into the demographic abyss, losing population at a rate not seen since World War II.
“At the end of 2021, the natural population decline exceeded one million people. And this is a consequence of the underfunding of the national health care system, “ said deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Health Protection Alexey Kurinny told OSN Media.
"In terms of demographic and health indicators, the Russian Federation is somewhere at the level of African countries. And without a radical revision of the financing system, nothing good is expected," he said.
Government spending on medicine, according to Kurinny, should be at least 7% of GDP, and in Russia this number is 4.1% of GDP, and the budget includes its further reduction - to 3.7% of GDP by 2024. According to the WHO, Russia ranks 121st in the world in terms of health spending, behind even Sudan, Uganda, Togo and the Central African Republic.
The per capita spending for the universal health care in 2021 was set by the Russian Ministry of Health at the level of 17490 rubles ($229.5) per year. In other words, the Russian government allocated 1457 rubles ($20) a month for the treatment of each citizen.
As a result, mortality rate from cardiovascular diseases exceeds twice the rate in Europe, Kurinny cited statistics.
"The average life expectancy in Russia is 10 years less than in Europe, although in the late 80s it was at the same level," he added.
According to the Russian Federal State Statistics Service, Rosstat, in 2021, mortality in Russia increased by 15% and reached 2.445 million people. The birth rate fell by another 2.3%, to 1.4 million children, despite the new national 4 trillion rubles ($38 billion) program "Demography" and multiple calls of Russian officials, including Putin himself, to increase the birth rate.
For every birth in Russia, there were 1.7 deaths. As a result, the natural population decline accelerated by 1.5 times and amounted to 1.04 million people.
According to Rosstat , due to mortality being higher than the birth rate, Russia has been losing 2.8 thousand people per day, 118 people per hour or two people per minute.