Kalmykia stands out among other regions of Russia in terms of demographic development with its relatively high natural population growth. In 2000 the birth rates were 26,4% higher than the average Russia's level. Kalmykia is one of the 22 regions of Russian Federation where the birth rates exceed the level of 10.0 per thousand. The birth rates in the republic exceeded such level in in Atrakhan Oblast by 12,2%, Stavropol Territory - by 19,6%, Volgograd Oblast - by 31,0%, Rostov Oblast - by 34,1%. However, the contemporary ecomonic crisis have aggravated the demographic situation both in the whole country and in its regions. This phenomenon has recently had a certain impact on Kalmykia (table 1).

Table 1. Population in Kalmykia in 1996-2001

Urban areas have displayed a higher birth rates than rural areas in the recent 5 years. The urban rate in 2000 was 12.7 per thousand, whereas the rural rate was 9.8 per thousand.

Marriages and divorces in Kalmykia.

Since the absolute majority of births occur in wedlock, one of the reasons of low birth rates is in the lowering of mariiage rates.

In 2000 the number of officially registered marriages totaled in 1760, 6.3% lower than in 1999 and 42.0% lower than in 1989. The number of registered divorces came to 976, 17.6% higher than in 1999 and 16.3% higher than in 1989.

The republic's marriage rate made up 5.6 per population's 1000, divorce rates made up 3.1 per thousand. The lowest marriage rates have been registered in Yustinsky region (4.1 per mile). Compare to those of Gorodovikovsk region, more marriages and more divorces (6.9 marriages, 4.8 divorces per 1000 of population).

The marriage rates in 2000 were lover than the average Russian rates (6.2 per thousand), as well as below the marriage rates of the neighboring regions: Republic of Dagestan (6.7 per thousand), Astrakhan Oblast (6.6 per thousand), Volgograd Oblast (6.3 per thousand), Stavropol Territory (6.1 per thousand), Rostov Oblast (5.9 per thousand).

The divorce rates in the republic are lower than the average Russian, which in 2000 came to 4.3 per thousand, and lower than the divorce rated in the neighboring regions except for the Republic of Dagestan (1.4 per thousand). For instance, in Volgograd Oblast it was 4.9 per thousand, in Astrakhan and Rostov Oblasts it was 4.4 per thousand, in Stavropol Oblast it was 4.0 per thousand.

In 2000 each 1000 officially registered marriages stood against 555 divorces. The same indicator's average level in Russian Federation made up 700 per 1000 marriages. Volgograd Oblast - 781, Rostov Oblast - 750, Astrakhan Oblast - 671, Stavropol Territory - 648, Republic of Dagestan - 207.

Popuilation by gender and age.

Gradual reduction of birth rates have conditioned reduction of the population, including children and teenagers, i.e. residents of age below the employment age (table 2).

Table 2. Population's age structure¹

Footnote 1: Hereinafter the gender and age structure data for 1959, 1970, 1979, 1989 are given according to the population censae, other years' data are given according to expert estimates for the beginning of year. Data for 1959 shows avilable population, other years show permanent population. Employment age is 16-59 years for men and 16-54 years for women.

The reduction of younger population and decrease of its share leads to the increase of the proportional weight of the population older than the employment age.

By the beginning of 2001 the number of children of age 0-15 in the Republic of Kalmykia exceeded the number of people of retirement age in 1.8 times. In the whole country the number of people of retirement age exceeds the number of children of age 0-15 by 2005.4 thousand.

It is necessary to outline that the recent years have witnessed the tendency of population's ageing take shape. However, the process is slower in the republic than in whole in the Russian Federation.

According to the UN classification a nation may be considered old if the share of elderly people (65 years old and more) makes up 7%. The ageing rates (people of 65 or more years old per thousand of population) in the period between the censae 1959 and 1989 remained at the level of 5,3 - 5,2%. According to the three-stage scale of demographic ageing the republic's population had been at the threshold of old age category then. The threshold of old age category have been overcome in 1995. On the whole the population of Russian Federation according to this classification had been in that category since 1970.

Perennial lowering of natural reproduction combined with the increase of absolute numbers of seniors made the process of demographic ageing practically irreversible. And the quick fall of the birth rates in 1990s have only accelerated it.

Changes of age structure have had a serious impact on many demographic indicators. Shifts in the age structure influence the demographic weight of load of the non-working population on the working one.

All the post WWII years have displayed evening out of the gender disproportion, created by war. However, its complete elimination if impossible for the reason of high early death rates of men.

Women prevail in the overall gender structure of population. It is worth a note that traditionally there are more births of boys than girls. The outnumbering of men remains till the age of 30, but then due to the higher men's mortality women take lead. And in the category of 65 years or older women outnumber men by two times. Such a considerable disproportion of genders in older categories is greatly conditioned by mostly men's casualties during WWII.

The average duration of men's lives in the Republic is 59,6 лет, it is 12.8 years less than women (72.4 years). These indicators are higher than the average Russian level where the expected durations of men's and women's lives are 59.0 and 72.2 tears respectively.

One of the distinctions of Kalmykia's demographic development is the fact that the average level of mortaliry is higher in urban areas than rural.

In 2000 the death rates were in the republic were 29.2% lower than the average Russian. Compaired to the neighboring regions, the death rates in Kalmykia in lower than that in Volgograd Oblast by 29.7%, Astrakhan Oblast by 23.2%, Stavropol Territory by 21.6%, but higher than in the Republic of Dagestan by 45,3%.