Half of Russia’s Women Are Single — Research
MOSNEWS.Com ^ | Created: 03.03.2005 12:14 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 12:14 MSK | MosNews
Posted on 03/08/2005 12:16:08 AM
Recent statistical research has shown that about 50 percent of Russian women are single and a large number of them have never been married, the Interfax news agency reports, citing a speech by Anatoly Vishnevsky, the head of the Center of Human Demographics and Ecology at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
“According to the latest poll, 175 women in every 1,000 have never been married, 180 are widows and 110 are divorcees and thus, all of them are single,” the researcher said at a news conference in Moscow on Thursday.
In the 25-30 age group 219 women in every 1,000 have never been married, 106 are divorcees and 11 are widows, he said.
Vishnevsky also said that the average age of a Russian bride has increased over the past few years. In 1990 the average age was 22, and now the figure is nearly 23. However, it is still significantly lower than the average bride age in Western Europe, the researcher said.
He also said that according to the latest poll, there are 15 percent more women in Russia than men. For every thousand men we have 1147 women, and because of lower levels of males being born as well as high mortality rates among men we should not expect the gender ratio to level out, the researcher said.
Sociologists have voiced concern over the situation because by mid-century the number of potential mothers in Russia may halve and by the beginning of the next century it could be three times below today’s level.
“If we have less mothers we will have less birth and Russia’s population, which has been declining since 1992, will continue to decline,” Vishnevsky concluded.