21 Jun 2011 12:27

Russian population falls 66,100 in 4 mths - Rosstat

MOSCOW. June 21 (Interfax) - Russia's population was an estimated 142.8 million on May 1, 2011, down 66,100 from the beginning of the year, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said.

Natural population loss decreased by 6,500 to 100,800. Migration growth compensated the losses by 34.4%.

Russia registered 557,900 births in the four months, down from 572,000 in the same period of last year; and 658,700 deaths, down from 679,360 a year previously.

The number of births exceeded the number of deaths by 20%, as a year ago.