Social and Demographic Situation in H1 2018

Natalia Zubarevich – Main Research fellow of the Demography and Migration Research Department, Institute of Social Analysis and Forecasting, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Doctor of Geographic Sciences, Professor. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Ramilya Khasanova – Senior Research fellow of the Demography and Migration Research Department, Institute for Social Analysis and Forecasting, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Candidate of Economic Sciences. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Yulia Florinskaya – Leading Research fellow of the Demography and Migration Research Department, Institute of Social Analysis and Forecasting, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Candidate of Geographic Sciences. Е-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The economy and the social services sector are getting out of the stagnation, but very slowly. In most constituent entities of the Russian Federation, households’ incomes keep falling. However, the fiscal situation of regional budgets have changed for the better owing to a substantial growth in individual income tax revenues and transfers. A considerable growth in social expenditures was driven by the presidential elections and elections of governors in a quarter of regions.

The natural decline in Russia’s population gathered momentum and amounted to 170,500 people in January-July 2018. The number of deaths exceeded by 1.4% the relevant index of the previous year, while the number of births was 4.2% lower than in the same periods of 2017.

In H1 2018, the migration gain was equal to 75,400 people, however 2/3 of the regions, most of which are situated in the eastern part of the country still observe a migration outflow. The migration gain index has generally been declining since the beginning of the 2010s. In the past few years, the temporary migration to Russia was declining slowly, too. Growth in the share of legal migrants seen in the past few years has come to a halt, while the number of newly issued permit documents has somewhat decreased as compared to 2017.

Key words: regional analysis, budgets’ expenses, social indicators, birth rate, mortality rate, migration.