The population of Russia is decreasing rapidly. Putin is trying to put a stop to that

For a quarter century, President Vladimir Putin has been grappling with Russia’s declining and aging population.

The demographic crisis had already occurred before he came to power, with the country recording its lowest birth rate in 1999, a year before he took office.

In 2005, Mr. Putin acknowledged the issue, saying that these demographic challenges required maintaining “social and economic stability.” He reiterated his concerns in 2019, admitting that the problem still “haunts” the country.

Most recently, on Thursday, he addressed a Kremlin demographic conference, stressing that the birth increase was “crucial” for Russia’s future.

To combat this trend, Mr Putin has launched a number of initiatives, ranging from providing free school meals for large families to reinstating Soviet-era “hero-mother” medals for women who give birth to 10 or more children.

“Many of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers had seven, eight and even more children,” Putin said in 2023. “Let’s preserve and revive these wonderful traditions. Having many children and a large family should become the norm.”

First, births in Russia increased with its economic prosperity, from 1.21 million babies born in 1999 to 1.94 million in 2015.

But these hard-earned gains are collapsing against a backdrop of financial uncertainty, war ukraineYouth migration and opposition to immigration.

According to Russia’s Federal Statistics Service, Russia’s population has declined from 147.6 million in 1990 to 146.1 million this year, a year before the collapse of the USSR. Since 2014 illegal occupation CrimeaIt includes in its data the peninsula’s population of approximately 2 million, as well as births and deaths there.

The population is also much older. According to government statistics, in 1990, 21.1% were 55 or older. In 2024 this figure was 30%.

Since the 2015 peak, the number of births has declined annually, and deaths now exceed births. There were only 1.22 million live births last year – slightly more than the 1999 low. Demographer Alexey Raksha said the number of babies born in Russia in February 2025 was the lowest monthly figure in two centuries.

Russia is trying to halt this decline and adopt new restrictions to embrace “traditional family values”, including laws banning abortion and promoting “child-free ideology” and outlawing all LGBTQ+ activism.

Russian feminist scholar Sasha Talavar said that officials believe such values ​​are a “magic wand” for solving demographic problems.

In the government’s view, women can be economically independent, but they must be “willing and very excited to take on this additional work of reproduction in the name of patriotism and Russian strength,” he said.

In Russia, as in much of the West, declining birthrates are usually linked to economic unrest. Young couples living in cramped apartments, unable to afford their own home, or who fear for their jobs typically have less confidence that they can raise a child.

But Russia suffers from a harsh demographic history.

about 27 million Soviet Civilians died in World War II, dramatically reducing the male population.

As the country began to recover, the Soviet Union collapsed and the birth faltered again.

Jenny Mathers of Aberystwyth University in Wales said the number of Russian women in their 20s and 30s is low, leaving officials “desperate to have as many children as possible from this very small number of women.”

Although Russia has not told how many of its soldiers have been killed. ukraineWestern estimates put the death toll in the thousands. When the war began, many young Russians went abroad – some for ideological reasons such as avoiding a crackdown on dissent or avoiding military service.

“You’ve got a very small pool of potential fathers in a dwindling pool of potential mothers,” Mathers said. This is a particular problem for Putin, he said, who has long been concerned with population and national security.

Some family-friendly initiatives are popular, such as cash certificates for parents that can go toward pensions, education or subsidized mortgages.

Others are controversial, such as the one-time payment of about $1,200 for pregnant teens in some areas. Officials say they are aimed at helping vulnerable mothers, but critics say they encourage such pregnancies.

Still other programs seem mostly symbolic. From 2022, Russia has created state holidays such as Family, Love and Fidelity Day in July and Pregnant Women’s Day – which are celebrated on April 7 and October 7.

Last year, Russia’s fertility rate – the average number of children born per woman – was 1.4, state media reported. This is well below the 2.1 replacement rate for the population, and slightly lower than the US figure of 1.6 released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some areas have laws making it illegal to “encourage abortion”, while national legislation in 2024 bans the promotion of “child-free propaganda”. The wording in such initiatives is often vague, leaving them open to interpretation, but the change was enough to prompt the producers of the reality TV hit “16 and Pregnant” to change the show’s name to “Mommy at 16.”

For many women, these measures make an already sensitive conversation even more frightening. A 29-year-old woman, who has decided not to have children, told The Associated Press that she sees a gynecologist at a private hospital. moscow To avoid intrusive questions, a clinic rather than a state.

“Am I planning to have kids, am I not planning to have kids – I don’t get asked about that at all,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity because she feared repercussions. At government clinics, it’s “a completely different story,” he said.

A growing number of laws limit access to abortion. Although the procedure is legal and widely available, most private clinics no longer provide abortion services. The new law also bans the sale of abortion-inducing pills, a move that also affects some emergency contraceptives.

Women are encouraged to go to government clinics, where wait times are long and some sites refuse to perform abortions on certain days. By the time patients complete the mandatory counseling and mandatory waiting period of between 48 hours to a week, they risk exceeding the legal abortion deadline.

Abortions have steadily declined under these laws, although experts say the number of procedures was already falling. Still, births have not increased that much, and activists believe banning abortion would only harm the health of women and children.

“All you get from this is illegal abortions. It means more deaths: more children dying and more women dying,” says Russian journalist and feminist activist Zalina Marshenkulova.

She sees the new government’s limitations as repression for the sake of repression. “They exist just to impose restrictions, to stop any voice of freedom,” he told the AP.

Russia could increase its population by allowing more immigrants – something like kremlin There is no possibility of adoption.

Russian authorities have recently stoked anti-migrant sentiment, tracking their movements, restricting their employment, and hindering their children’s rights to education. Central Asians who traditionally travel to Russia for work are looking elsewhere in hopes of escaping growing discrimination and economic uncertainty.

While the war in Ukraine continues, Moscow can promise financial rewards to prospective parents, but not the stability needed to gamble on the future.

When people lack confidence about their prospects, it’s not the time to have children, Mathers said, adding: “A big open-ended war doesn’t really encourage people to think positively about the future.”

The 29-year-old woman, who decided not to have children, agrees.

“The happiest and healthiest child will only be born into a family with healthy, happy parents,” he said.