2008 had the highest birth rates since 1992. BarentsObserver reported a year ago about then-President Vladimir Putin’s speech to the nation where he declared 2008 to be the “Year of the Family.” Putin also presented a detailed plan for improving childcare benefits in order to encourage women to have at least the two children needed to maintain a stable population.
The baby-boom figures for 2008 were presented by now-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at the Presidium meeting of the Presidential Council for Priority National Projects and Demographic Policy on Wednesday.
Moreover, as a result of the implementation of national priority projects life expectancy in Russia has increased almost by three years,” the prime minister said, according to Itar-Tass.
Putin surprised the audience when he in his April 2007 address to the nation said:
” When planning to have a child, a woman is faced with the choice whether to have a child but lose her job, or not to have a child. … This is a very difficult choice. The encouragement of childbirth should include a whole range of measures of administrative, financial, and social support for young families. “
Russia’s demographic crisis has for the last years resulted in an annual decline of nearly 700,000 people a year. Maybe the on-going baby-boom one day will put an end to Russia’s population decline.
Last week BarentsObserver wrote about the baby-boom in Norway. Norwegian women in average give birth to 1,96 children which is more than most of their European sisters.