Population size, structure and natural decrease of Tver region in 2014-2019

Abstract

Ensuring sustainable natural growth of the population of the Russian Federation is one of the main targets of the National Development Goals. Population size is a function determined by three demographic processes: fertility, mortality, external and internal migration. Knowledge of basic demographic indicators can help to implement more effective demographic policies. The article examines data on the population size and structure of Tver region in 2014-2019. The analyzed data include applications of the electronic version of the bulletin “Population and Society” - “Demoscope Weekly”: “Population censuses of the Russian Empire, the USSR, 15 new independent states”, the official website of the Federal State Statistics Service and the statistical yearbook “Tver Region in Numbers 2019”. The population size of the territories in borders of modern Tver region began to decline from the end of the 1920s, due to the mass departure of former peasants to the cities, the tragedy of the Great Patriotic War and the proximity of the two largest agglomerations with huge labor markets (Moscow and Leningrad). Since the 1990s. depopulation is in line with and somewhat ahead of all-Russian trends. There are 1,260,379 people who live in the region in 2020, which is 96.3% of the population in 2015. The share of the rural population continues to decline to 23.9%. The share of the male population has slightly increased to 45.6%. The share of elderly people and the elderly dependency ratio is increasing (up to 86.3 elderly people per 100 people of working age). Also we can see a progressive declining in crude birth (down to 8.4‰) and crude mortality rates (down to 16.3‰). The rate of natural decrease is also growing (up to 7.9‰). At the same time, negative demographic trends exceed the average national indicators. Life expectancy at birth for men increased to 65.79 years and for women to 76.51 years, however, remaining below the national average. These trends must be accounted when planning and implementing measures to improve the demographic situation in the Tver region.