Russian population stops downward trajectory

The fall in the Russian population has seen a 3.5-fold reduction in the last five years, due to realization of the national project ‘Health’, Russian Vice-Premier Alexander Zhukov said, RIA Novosti reports.

Russia has concluded the first stage of realizing the demographic policy in 2010, aimed at stimulating the birth rate and reducing the death rate. State support for mothers and children improved.

The birth rate improved by 23% since 2006, the death rate dropped by 11.2%.

The Russian Minister of Healthcare and Social Development, Tatyana Golikova, noted that the Russian population is 141.9 million, according to the statistics of January 1, 2010. The number of employable citizens is falling. The average life expectancy is 68.98 years.

Over 10,000 clinics were provided with diagnostic equipment in the last five years. The time needed for instrumental studies dropped from 10 to 5-3 days. Approximately 70% of the ambulance fleet was updated. The time needed for an ambulance to arrive dropped from 35 to 25 minutes.
Zhukov said that Russia has been improving medical support for people in car accidents and cardiovascular diseases since 2008. The car accident death toll reduced by 21% in 2010, cardiovascular diseases – by 11.4%.
502 adult health centers opened in Russia. Alcohol consumption dropped by 4.5%, smoking – by 7.6%, Zhukov said.
22 regions are constructing modern perinatal centers. The infant mortality rate has dropped by almost a third in the last 5 years. The mothers’ mortality rate dropped by 13.4%. Zhukov said that the child birth rate increased by 28,000 (1.6%) in 2010 compared to 2009, and by 332,000 compared to 2005.
The second stage of the demographic program starts in 2011. The goals are to raise the population to 142-143 million by 2016, increase life expectancy to 70 years, improve the birth rate 1.3-fold compared to 2006 and reduce the death rate by a third compared to 2006.
Russia plans to spend 1.617 trillion rubles on improvement of the nation's demography, 876.1 billion rubles of which are to be issued in 2011-2013.