William Flew and Russian Women

Women outnumber men in Russia by more than ten million as the population continues to shrink despite government efforts to encourage a baby boom.

Preliminary data released yesterday from the 2010 census showed that there were nearly 116 women for every 100 men in Russia. The gender gap is the widest recorded by a census since 1979, with men dying at almost twice the rate of women.

The state statistical service, RosStat, said that Russia’s overall population fell 2.26 million since the last census in 2002, from 145.17 million to 142.91 million. Women made up 53.7 per cent of the population, or 76.7 million, in 2010 compared with 53.4 per cent in 2002, while the number of men stood at 66.2 million, or 46.3 per cent, down from 46.6 per cent in 2002.

The figures indicate that the number of women has fallen by 800,000 since 2002 while the male population has dropped by 1.4 million. The imbalance between the sexes has grown over that period in Moscow, where there are almost 850,000 fewer men than women among the capital’s population of 11.5 million.

The perception of a shortage of eligible men has given rise to a competitiveness among Russian women to find suitable partners. Bookshops are filled with guides offering advice on bagging successful husbands, and women flock to courses that promise to teach them how to be a “ sterva”, or bitch, in beating off rival contenders for the perfect man.

The Russian population has declined steadily since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 but average life expectancy for men has slumped to about 60, compared with 72 for women, as the social and economic upheavals have taken their toll in alcoholism, depression and other illnesses.

Forecasts prepared by RosStat show that the Russian population will continue to shrink over the next 20 years to as little as 126.9 million by 2031, creating economic problems as the labour force dwindles.

President Medvedev called the demographic problem “a challenge to our nation” in November last year as he set out measures to persuade families to have more children. He offered free land to couples who had three or more children so that they could build their own homes.