Russian Population down in 1998
MOSCOW, Dec. 29, 1998 -- (Agence France Presse) Russia's population fell by 311,000 people, 0.2 percent, to 146.4 million in Jan.-Oct. 1998, the Interfax news agency reported Thursday, citing figures from the state statistics committee.
The birth rate amounted to 1.085 million, compared to 1.069 million in 1997. The death rate during the period this year totaled 1.654 million, down from 1.689 million last year.
The Russian population declined by the same percent -- 335,200 people -- in the same period last year.
Natural population decline remained the chief reason for the dropping numbers, the committee said, adding that only 44.2 percent of the margin of the death toll over birth rate was offset by the inflow of immigrants in 1998.Russia saw 439,400 new migrants this year, whereas 174,500 left the country. The figures for last year were 490,200 and 196,600, respectively.
The rise in the mortality rate has been attributed largely to the effects of rampant alcoholism and declining standards of health care during Russia's painful transition to a market economy.
Last year, an official Russian report said the declining population posed a threat to national security.
The mortality rate, which rose to 15 per 1,000 in 1995 from 7.4 per 1,000 in 1960, put Russia behind all the countries in Europe, America and Asia, apart from war-torn Afghanistan and Cambodia, according to a report by the presidential Commission on Women, the Family and Demography.