Putin Notes Positive Trends in Demographic Situation
MOSCOW. April 28 (Interfax) - Positive trends have been recorded in the demographic situation in Russia, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said.
"Since 2005 life expectancy has increased by almost four years in Russia. Unfortunately, it remains far below the life expectancy of neighboring countries in Europe, but progress is obvious, the trend is fairly good at least. The death rate has gone down by more than 11%. The death rate caused by vascular diseases and cancer has started to decline," Putin told a world ministerial conference on healthy living and non-infectious diseases in Moscow.
"We have yet to achieve much. But a positive effect of the measures being taken is obvious," the prime minister said.
Health care was and remains an essential priority in Russia, Putin said. During the financial crisis, the government was consistently increasing spending on health services, Putin said, adding that a broad information campaign was launched to popularize a healthy way of living under the national healthcare project.
More than 500 health centers for adults and over 200 for children and teenagers were opened, he said.
"Positive trends have been observed in all directions. The death rate caused by traffic accidents has shown an impressive decline of 26%," the prime minister said.
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