The Russian population registered a decline of more than one million inhabitants in 2021, a record since the collapse of the Soviet Union, particularly impacted by the pandemic of coronavirus, reported this Friday the official statistics agency Rosstat.
Last year, the country lost 1.04 million inhabitants, compared to 688,700 in 2020, mainly due to an increase in mortality of 15.1%, while the birth rate did not have a significant decline, Rosstat said.
The main cause of this mortality was Covid-19, which between 2020 and 2021 was related to the death of 660,000 people.
Rosstat figures are usually much higher than those of the government, whose balance is 329,443 deaths from coronavirus.
Russia faced the pandemic with a slow vaccination campaign, almost no confinement measures and ignoring recommended health measures, such as the use of masks on public transport.
The data released this Friday show the difficulty of the president Vladimir Putin to reverse a demographic crisis in which Russia has been immersed for three decades.
The generation that faced the economic, social and moral debacle following the collapse of the Soviet Union 30 years ago is the one that is currently of childbearing age, but shows no enthusiasm in doing so.
The fertility rate in Russia is currently 1.5 children per woman, well below the 2.1 needed to ensure demographic renewal.
According to Rosstat, as of January 1, 2022, the population of Russia was 145.47 million.
