Only a year ago, Russia's demographic crisis was in the spotlight. The country was depopulating at a rate of 700,000 a year. It drove the government to declare 2008 the year of the family and to come up with policies to boost the birth rate. And results s

The number of babies born last year jumped to about two million – up 8.3 per cent from the year before and a post-Soviet record.

At 141.9 million, Russia’s population is the world’s eighth biggest.  But that won’t last long.  Projections show it will have one of highest rates of population decline between now and 2050, according to the Population Reference Bureau and Russia’s State Statistics Service.

The number of babies born last year jumped to about 1.6 million – up 20 per cent on last year and a post-Soviet record.

Another piece of good news is that the rate of decline is slowing.  Russia is now expected to have 110.1 million people in 2050, up from the 109.4 million projected last year.  

New government programmes support first-time mothers as well as working mums willing to have more kids after a certain age.

Leading gynecologist Mark Kurtser says: “There is definitely an age shift within women giving birth today. There are many more second, third and fourth births, and, accordingly, the women giving birth are older”.

Elena Kondratinskaya is a violinist and plays in an orchestra. She had her first baby at the age of 30 and is now discovering the pros and cons of having a child with government support and encouragement.

“The doctor was really nice, so were the hospital staff. It was clean and you could get professional help or advice at any time of the day. The new baby boom in Russia has brought in a change of attitude,” Kondratinskaya says.

Adoption in focus too

The adoption campaign has also become a main focus for the State this year. Adopting from orphanages and centres for disabled kids, which was once taboo, is now commonplace.

Orphanage head Yulia Topylova says this year has been a critical one in adoption.

“If you compare the years 2005, 2006 and 2007, the number of adoptions is higher in just 8 months of 2008 that the three previous years put together and before there were many more foreign adoption cases as opposed to Russian and now it’s the opposite,” Topylova said.

Adoption has become simpler for Russians but there still needs to be continuous financial support for new families.