Despite economic growth in recent years, Russia is facing phenomenal population decline, due in large part to untimely deaths from heart disease, traffic accidents, and alcoholism. Life expectancy in Russia is 12 years less than life expectancy in the US.
Since 1992, the Russian population was reduced by 6 million people, and if current low fertility and high mortality trends continue, the Russian Federation will lose approximately 18 million people by 2025. As a result, Russia will go from being the 6th-most-populous country in the world to being the 17th.

Russian working-age men are particularly at risk. If current ill health and disability are considered, the healthy life expectancy of Russian males will fall to 53 years.

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTECA/Resources/Dying_too_Young_Summary_UPDATED_Oct_19.pdf – Summary of World Bank Report, 2005, Accessed December 30,2008.

World Bank publication, Dying Too Young – Addressing Premature

Mortality and Ill Health Due To Non-Communicable Diseases and Injuries in the Russian Federation

(2005) prepared by Patricio V. Marquez, Lead Health Specialist, Europe and Central Asia Region

(ECA), The World Bank, with contributions from:

Marc Suhrcke and Lorenzo Rocco, World Health Organization (WHO) European Office for

Investment for Health and Development, Venice; Martin McKee and Dave Leon, London School of

Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; Jill Farrington and Anatolyi Nosikov, WHO Office for Europe,

Copenhagen; Tiina Laatikainen, National Public Health Institute of Finland; Kirill Danishevski,

Moscow Medical Academy; and from members of the World Bank Russia Health Team: Anne

Margreth Bakilana, Tatyana Loginova, Willy De Geyndt, Edward Frid, John C. Langenbrunner,

Ginny Hsieh and Alberto Gónima.

The authorities of the Russian Ministry of Health and Social Development provided overall guidance

and advice under the leadership of Deputy Minister V. Starodubov and Department Director, Dr.R.

Khalfin. Professor R. G. Oganov of the Russian State Research Center of Preventive Medicine and

his team provided advice, information, and assessments conducted by Russian researchers.

Additional contributions were made by the team of the North Karelia Project and the National Public

Health Institute of Finland, under the leadership of Professor Pekka Puska, who advised on the lessons

learned from the Finnish experience during a visit to Joensuu and Helsinki in April 2005.

The report benefited from comments and advice from World Bank managers and technical specialists:

Kristalina I. Georgieva, Charles Griffin, Armin Fidler, Enis Baris, Edmundo Murrugarra,

Christoph Kurowski, Cem Mete, John Litwack, Maria Gracheva, Joy de Beyer, Ben Eijbergen,

Gillette Conner, Dorothee Eckertz, Maris Jesse, Derek Yach, Yale University School of Medicine;

and Oscar Echeverri, as well as from Mikko Vienonen, Country Director, WHO Office, Moscow,

Brook Horowitz, The Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum, London, and Carlos

Santos-Burgoa, Mexican Health Secretariat.

Beth Goodrich edited the report, and Anahit Poghosyan was responsible for its production.

The report’s findings and recommendations were presented at a workshop organized by the

MOHSD in Moscow on June 14-15, 2005.

The summary was prepared by Patricio V. Marquez with editorial support from Merrell J. Tuck-

Primdahl and Christina Anna Lakatos, ECA External Affairs, The World Bank.