The main features of the current demographic crisis in Russia and ways of its overcoming
Over the last decades the demographic situation in the Russian Federation has changed significantly. In the early 1990s in the period of serious socio-economic and political changes there was a rapid growth in mortality rate as well as a sharp decline in birthrate. It indicates a demographic crisis in the country. Depopulation processes reached its peak in the early 2000s, and then started to decline gradually. Substantial improvement of the demographic situation, which began in the mid-2000s, was a result of stabilization of the socio-economic and political life as well as a consequence of the government’s population policy. Nowadays, the demographic crisis problem has not been solved completely; the continued decline of the country’s population testifies it. The feature of a modern demographic crisis is that it has transferred to a new, deeper structural level, thereby becoming less visible and tangible. The article analyses negative qualitative changes in the population structure as specific aspects of the demographic crisis manifestation in Russia at the present stage of development (2000-2012). The author considers such features of the process, as aging of the population, reducing the share of able-bodied population, gender disparity, spreading of social diseases, mortality growth due to external causes, especially among men, reducing the share of the Russian population. The basic directions to overcome negative trends in the quality characteristics of the population are suggested.