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Russia’s fertility rate is “catastrophically low” and is a threat to the country’s future, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned on July 26. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently addressed the demographics issue in a decree on national development goals. The current total fertility rate in Russia is at a “terribly” low level of 1.4, according to Peskov, making it similar to levels recorded elsewhere in Europe and in Japan.
In May, Putin signed a decree on the country’s development goals through 2030, one of which is to increase the fertility rate to 1.6 by 2030 and to 1.8 by 2036. According to official statistics, the 2023 fertility rate of 1.41 was the lowest in Russia in 17 years. The highest ever recorded rate of 1.78 came in 2015. Just over 1.2mn babies were born in Russia last year, the lowest figure since 1999, official statistics showed. The country is facing a “terrible” demographic crisis which could result in an acute labour shortage of up to 2.4mn workers by 2030, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko warned in June.
The number of children born in the EU has been declining since 2008, when 4.68 million children were born. The total fertility rate in 2022 was 1.46 live births per woman in the EU, which is another decline, after the small increase recorded in 2021 (the total fertility rate was 1.53 in 2021 and 1.51 in 2020).7 Mar 2024
79 RUSSIA Country Report August 2024 www.intellinews.com