NOVO-OGARYOVO, January 22 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s population showed natural growth of 22,650 people last year despite a declining birthrate, the country’s health minister said Tuesday.
The mortality rate over the first 11 months decreased by 19,000 deaths compared with the same period in 2012, while the birth rate dropped by only 919 births, Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said in a report to President Vladimir Putin.
She said the number of deaths from tuberculosis was down 10 percent, while deaths caused by road accidents dropped 1.4 percent.
She didn’t say how much the current population is. At the beginning of last year, the State Statistics Service reported Russia’s population was 143.4 million people.
