Olga Sharapova, the director of the maternity department in the Health and Social Development Ministry, said a set of measures had been introduced in Russia since early 2006 to alleviate the problem, including maternity hospital funding and capital payouts ($9,500) for the birth of two or more children.
But Nikolai Volodin, a senior sociologist, said Monday Russia's population will fall to 135 million by 2016, from the current 142.2 million.
Volodin, a deputy head of the Federal Service for the Oversight of Public Health and Social Affairs, said social upheaval, low birth rates, the proportion of families with only one child, high male mortality rates, mainly caused by accidents, and a decline in internal migration were the main reasons for the population decline.
However, the expert said the average life span for Russians had increased slightly from 64.9 years in 2003 to 65.3 years in 2005, but it was still far less than in Japan, the United States, China and some European countries.
Russia is faced with an acute demographic problem, and the government is implementing a number of programs designed to increase the birth rate and attract more migrants to alleviate the problem.
