Russia sees population decline

Russia’s population has shrunk by 1.6 percent since 2002, according to preliminary census results released Monday.

The census, carried out in October 2010, is Russia’s second since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The data, published Monday in the official Rossisskaya Gazeta newspaper, showed that Russia has a population of 142,905,200 people – 2.2 million less than 2002, when the last census was carried out.

The data also found that it doesn’t just seem like there are many more women in Russia than men. Men comprise less than half of Russia’s population – 46.3 percent (down from 46.6 percent). That means there are 76.7 million women in Russia and just 66.2 million men.

Russia has experienced a dramatic drop in population since the fall of the Soviet Union, thanks in large part to an unhealthy lifestyle that sees alcohol and cigarettes cut men’s life expectancy to just around 60 years old. At the same time, Russians tend to have few children, and emigration is again on the rise. Authorities attempt to strictly curtail immigration, leading to a huge number of illegals, who were most likely not registered in last year’s census.