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Abstract In terms of territory, Russia is the largest country in the world, but in accordance with population density it becomes a country with a sparse population. During the 1990s, the population in Russia has been greatly decreasing and appeared a negative grow th since 1993 while a positive growth has been emerged in most countries with a large population. This total population amount in Russia dropped to 147 million in 2000 that means 2 million decreased during the latest 8 years. Recently, the death rate in Russia has reached two times of birth rate. Population crisis has become the one of crucial problems, which affects economic development and racial existence in Russia. Some characteristics of population grow th in Russia has obviously run counter to the general principle of the world, for example, the population aging based on the decrease of average life-span. The average life-span from 1990 to 1998 in Russia had reduced 2.2 years, which causes that the average life-span in Russia is ten years old less than world average. At the same time, the proportion of retired population in whole population had risen from 18.6% to 20.8%. And the sex differentiation in population features has gradually expanded, for instance, male population occupies less than 47% of total population. More interesting fact is that the average life-span for Russian male is 10 years old less than that for female which only 2-3 years old differentiation between male and female in developed countries. Meanwhile, a outerflow tendency of metropolis population has continuously developed. Based on the analysis of population g row th, structure, distribution and urbanization in Russia, the author suggests that economic deterioration has already become the basic cause of population crisis. Average income of Russian inhabitant has obviously decreased, and one third of total population drops down the poverty threshold. As a result, a series of social maladies such as high divorce rate(58.6% in 1998), excessive drinking, murder, commit suicide etc. have seriously affected cultural and human atmosphere. Because of poverty, many female do not like to be a mother for raising the baby. That is the profound reason why the population grow th in Russia is continuing to decrease. An urgent task for alleviating the population problems in Russia is to speed up the economic development for whole country and to improve the life quality for all people.
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Received: 15 April 2002
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2002, Vol. 17 
