MOSCOW, July 15 (RIA Novosti) - In the first six months of 2004, the birth rate in Moscow exceeded last year's by over 3,500, Tatyana Ushakova, deputy head of the Moscow Registry Office Department, has said on Thursday.
In 2004 January to June, inclusive, 45,739 babies were born, or 3,679 more than in 2003.
While the birth rate has increased, the death rate has subsided in Moscow. Over six months, 66,242 people died, or 1,345 less than a year before.
Marriages remained at the same level - 30,525, Ushakova said. Divorces stood at 22,660, or 550 less than last year.
Among the positive tendencies in family relations is, according to Ushakova, the 25-percent more often establishment of paternity. The procedure takes place in families officially out of wedlock. It is, actually, the manifestation of the parents' goodwill with regard to their child: its birth certificate will no longer have a gap in the line "father".
