24 May 2018 12:35

Increasing life expectancy by 1 year every 1 year is ambitious task - Golikova

MOSCOW. May 24 (Interfax) - Life expectancy in Russia has to increase by one year over the course of six years to achieve the goal set by the Russian president, to increase life expectancy to 78 years by 2024, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said.

"In 2007-2012, life expectancy increased by an average of six months a year. The rates later declined somewhat to four months a year, if you take the next period. Now we have an ambitious task, and it will be, on average, one year per year," Golikova said in an interview with Rossiya 24 (VGTRK) on Thursday.

The main areas to focus on are, "of course, healthcare, reduction of the infant mortality rate, reduction of the mortality rate at an able-bodied age, and active longevity - that is, work with the older generation," she said.

"Some work has been done in all of these spheres," Golikova said.

"Maybe we didn't work actively enough with the older generation. Twenty-five percent of the population is now beyond the generally accepted able-bodied age: 55 for women and 60 for men. No doubt, some of them are working, but we should nevertheless come up with additional measures for these people to increase life expectancy," she said.

"The death rate in villages, which is 14.5% higher than in cities, makes a serious contribution to the mortality rate," Golikova said.