Birth rate should continue to increase - Golikova
GORKI. July 8 (Interfax) - Russia's population will stop decreasing if every Russian family has at least two children, Russian Health and Social Development Minister Tatyana Golikova said.
"We can stop this fall when we reach the figure two," Golikova said while meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Medvedev, in turn, recalled that the birth rate did not exceed 1.37 when he started working on demography issues in the government in 2006.
Last year, the number of babies born in Russia reached a record level of 1,789,000 and the baby death rate went down 29%, Golikova said.
"In other words, 2010 was a record year for the birth rate, but we have not reached the level of 1991 yet," the minister said.
At the same time, "there is a good statistical indicator: the number of third children born in families has increased by 1.2%," Golikova said.
Golikova also mentioned another indicator, which she says is not normally stated in official statistics: the number of marriages in Russia reached 1.215 million in 2010 as compared to 1.066 million in 2005, and the number of children born in marriage has increased by 31.7%.
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