Why is Russias population declining?
Absent war, famine or pestilence – none of which appear to be present (on a large scale at least) in Russia now – population trends are rarely due to a single factor. The following represents fairly orthodox demographic/economic assumptions and point of view. Some people will no doubt disagree with it. Most demographers & economists agree that in in a pre-industrial society where most demand for labor is unskilled, children are an asset – they work the family farm, help provide family income, support parents in old-age, etc- so people have lots of childred. In an industrial society, on the other hand, children are a liability, at least until they have completed the – typically – 12 to 16 years of formal education needed to compete successfully in an industrial economy. Incomes are high enough to enable most people to set a little aside for retirement and/or provide at least some type of social benefit network. So people have few children. Now, compared to North America and Western Euro
