Russia's natural population decrease down 43% year on year in Jan-Feb - Rosstat

MOSCOW. April 14 (Interfax) - Russia's natural population decrease (deaths outnumbering births) fell by 43% in January-February 2023 to 101,932, compared to 178,700 in the same months of last year, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said on Friday.

Births were down 2.7% to 199,300, from 204,900 in January-February 2022, while deaths were down 21.5% to 301,200, compared to 383,600 for the same period in 2022.

Last year, Russia's natural population decrease fell by 42.5%, to 599,616, compared to 1,042,675 in 2021.

As a result, according to Rosstat's latest data, by the beginning of 2023 Russia's population ("excluding official statistical information on the Donetsk People's Republic, the Lugansk People's Republic, and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions") dropped to 146.4 million, from 147 million at the beginning of 2022.