Nicholas Eberstadt and Hans Groth write in the opinion pages of The Wall Street Journal Europe:
Russia is a European country, and its population patterns are unmistakably European in a number of respects, e.g. low birth rates, rising illegitimacy ratios and immigration tensions, and an aging population. But its demographic profile and future prospects differs in two important respects that bode ill for Russia's long-term economic outlook. First, Russia's health and mortality situation is vastly worse than Western Europe's. Second, Russia's brutally high levels of mortality, along with anemic fertility levels, fashion a second "exceptional" demographic trend for the country: depopulation.
Read the full commentary:
