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the country’s population is set to shrink in a deepening demographic crisis that’s been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and his war in Ukraine. Putin ordered the government to develop policies for raising life expectancy to 81 years in Russia by 2036, up from 73.4 years last year, in a new decree on national development goals. The decree updates a goal Putin set in 2020 for life expectancy to rise to 78 years by 2030. The 71-year-old president was inaugurated Tuesday for his fifth term to 2030 and can potentially rule to 2036. The goals for extending Russians’ life expectancy are in line with best-case scenarios published by the Federal Statistics Service in December. In the base case, though, Putin’s target of 78 years would be hit only in 2037 while the ambition of raising lifespans to 81 years wouldn’t even be reached in 2045. Putin has warned for years that Russia’s shrinking population threatens its political and economic future.
Fertility rates in the world’s largest country by area plunged in the 1990s during the economic shock that followed the breakup of the Soviet Union. The government has pouredbns into programs aiming to boost the birth rate by offering payments to women who have more children. Still, it’s had little effect in reversing the demographic decline. Putin’s decree appears to recognize the challenge, urging the government to raise the fertility rate to 1.6 by 2030 and 1.8 by 2036, still lower than the level needed to maintain a stable population.
Russia’s population fell by about 1.7mn people in the five years from January 2019 to January 2024, to 146mn, according to the statistics service. The total includes some 2mn people in Ukraine’s Crimea that Russia illegally annexed in 2014. It forecast the slump will continue in the decades ahead, reaching 139mn in 2046, including an estimated 1.8mn people in Crimea. A study by the Russian Academy of Science’s Institute for Economic Forecasting calculated the population would slide to 136mn in 2050, based on “quite optimistic” assumptions about birth and death rates.
UNESCO released a new report on "Global Migration for 2024," which provides an overview of the state of educational migration worldwide. The numbers are quite intriguing and largely echo what has been said repeatedly: China and India will be key economic regions of the 21st century.
The report examines the number of students from different countries studying abroad and ranks the most "internationalized" educational economies. Unsurprisingly, China tops the list with just over one million students studying abroad. India is in second place with 508,000 students, followed by Vietnam with 137,000, slightly more than Germany with 126,000. Remarkably, Uzbekistan follows Germany with 109,000 students.
It is also noteworthy that the total number of international students is only 6.4 million, meaning that China and India account for about 25% of this number. As for their destinations, the United States remains the largest host country for foreign students (over 833,000). The UK (about 601,000), Australia (about
67 RUSSIA Country Report June 2024 www.intellinews.com