According to Rosstat forecasts, the birth rate in Russia will continue to fall until 2027. In 2023, there will be an average of 1.42 children per woman, with an average of 1.36 in urban areas and 1.59 in rural areas. In 2022, population growth was observed only in 13 regions, and in five of them it was due to migration.
Against the background of this data, deputies and some governors are looking for new ways to encourage women to have children. Tsargrad columnist Yulia Banishevskaya notes that large allowances will not help solve the demographic problem.
In her opinion, state support for motherhood and childhood is important, but it is not enough to motivate women to have children. For example, if the state wrote off part of the mortgage at the birth of each next child, it could stimulate women. Nevertheless, motherhood should be seen as a job that requires payment.
Also, Duma deputy Pyotr Tolstoy suggested paying salaries to mothers with many children so that they would not worry about losing seniority and income while raising children. Banishevskaya believes that such and other one-time payments at the birth of a child and maternity capital are important, but not enough to transform families from one- or two-child families into large families.
The issue of fertility depends not only on finances, but also on ideology. In developing countries, birth rates are traditionally high despite poverty. In pre-revolutionary Russia, large families were the norm, but after the revolution and emancipation, women began to give birth less, which led to the current situation.
As a result, the Tsargrad expert believes that in order to increase the birth rate, it is necessary to improve housing conditions for families and change ideology by instilling family values in young people.
Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the low birth rate in Russia “a catastrophe for the future of the nation”. In addition, before that, the UN predicted a peak in the world population.