Russian cross (demography)

For the three-bar cross used by the Russian Orthodox Church, see Orthodox cross.

"Russian Cross"; the black curve reflects the death rate dynamics, the red one corresponds to the birth rate (per thousand)

See also: Demographics of Russia

Russian Cross refers to a demographic trend in Russia. Since 1988 birth rates among native Russians (as well as most other ethnic groups of the European part of the former Soviet Union) have been declining, while since 1991 the death rates have been climbing. In 1992, the number of deaths exceeded the number of births, and has continued to do more or less so ever since. When this trend is plotted on a line graph starting from the mid-1980s and continuing to the present, the lines cross at 1992, hence the name. There is no evident causative link between the two trends (though some scientists have tried to connect them through the catastrophic growth of alcohol consumption that took place in Russia and other countries of the European part of the former Soviet Union in the late 1980s and early 1990s), but the graph has become a symbol of Russia's increasingly serious population shrinkage.

Bibliography

• Korotayev A., Khaltourina D. Russian Demographic Crisis in Cross-National Perspective // Russia and Globalization: Identity, Security, and Society in an Era of Change / Ed. by D. W. Blum. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. P. 37-78.
• Leon D. A., Chenet L., Shkolnikov V. M., Zakharov S., Shapiro J., Rakhmanova G., Vassin S., McKee M. 1997. Huge Variation in Russian Federation Mortality Rates 1984–1994: Artefact, Alcohol or What? // Lancet 350(9075): 383–388.

External links

• Russia's Demographic Decline Continues