RussiaBy: Liz Anderson, Wesley Hamada, Sarah Kerns and Shannon Stapley

Impact of Population Growth

The current population of Russia as of April 1, 2012 is estimated to be about 143,100,000.

Russia’s population peaked at 148,689,000 people in 1991, just before the break up of the Soviet Union.

After the breakup of the Soviet Union, there began a 10 year decline in the population falling about 0.5% per year due to declining birth rates, rising death rates and emigration.

The Russian population grew in 2009 about 23,300. This brought the total population up to 141.9 million.

The growth is said to be due to a falling death rates and increase in migration.

Population Growth Chart: 1950-2012

Concerns About Population Growth

The decline of population growth in Russia has been mainly blamed on emigration, alcoholism, poor healthcare and poverty.

Because of low population predictions, Russia is expected to have slower economic growth over the next 20 years than other countries such as China, Brazil and India.

How Russia Deals With Population Growth

Mikhail Gorbachev instituted an anti-alcohol campaign, but the effect of it was felt only temporarily.

As part of his 2006 Presidential campaign, Vladimir Putin brought forward legislation to help cut back the decline of the population. A national program was developed with the goal to reverse the declining trend by 2020.

In April of 2011, the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin promised to spend 1.5 trillion rubles or $54 billion dollars on various programs and measures to boost Russia’s ever declining birth rate over the next 4 years to 30 percent.

Works Cited

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8468185.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Russia