Russia has among the highest divorce rates in the world, and although they have slightly declined this year, they have remained high since the 1960s, according to the Longitudinal Prediction of Divorce in Russia: The Role of Individual and Couple Drinking Patterns published by the National Library of Medicine.
Newsweek reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment via email outside business hours.
A wedding ring with a broken heart in the background. Russia has among the highest divorce rates in the world, and they are linked to fertility rates. A wedding ring with a broken heart in the background. Russia has among the highest divorce rates in the world, and they are linked to fertility rates. Anthony Devlin/Associated Press
Why It Matters
High divorce rates in Russia are a significant issue because they are linked to Moscow’s fertility rates, which have become a topic of increasing concern in recent years.
Moreover, politicians have become so against the concept of divorce that one individual, Russian State Duma member Vitaly Milonov, suggested that as punishment, divorcees should be forced to pay a fine of 100,000 rubles (about $1,134) or be sent to serve “compulsory labor” in Russia’s war with Ukraine.
What To Know
The number of divorces in Russia from 2022 to 2023 stayed roughly the same, with a slight increase, as there were 683,638 divorces last year and 682,883 the year prior, according to Rosstat, Russia’s Federal State Statistics Service. From 2023 to 2024, there was a slight decline in the number of divorces, as there have been 532,896 divorces so far this year, and 566,777 divorces last year.
The Russian divorce rate reached its peak for the 2000 to 2022 period of 4.7 per 1,000 people in 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2022, according to Statista. Statistics from Rosstat have also indicated that marriage rates have declined, as annual marriage numbers dropped during the last decade, from up to 1.3 million between 2006 and 2013 to just 945,000 in 2023, according to the Russian outlet RT News.
In addition to high divorce rates, Russia is also facing low birth rates, which have led to overall population decline. Moscow’s current birth rate is 1.5 children per woman, compared to the 2.1 children per woman needed to sustain the population. Russia reached its lowest recorded birth rate in 25 years in the first six months of this year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about the country’s low birth rate during his annual news conference on December 19 and said that it was an “extremely important” demographic problem and that “In the Soviet Union, the birth rate [total fertility rate] was approximately 2 percent. What is the birth rate? This is the number of children per woman. At a certain point, several years ago, we reached about 1.7 percent. Unfortunately, it has dropped to 1.41 percent. Is this a lot or a little? Clearly, it’s very low. But other countries in our region are facing the same situation,” according to the Russian-state news agency TASS.
Putin and other government officials have been pushing people to have more children to increase the Russian population in a variety of ways. The government has considered opening a “ministry of sex,” introduced a program to pay female students aged 18 to 23 to have children, and set up a council aimed to promote policies to protect families and children.
Russian Health Minister Yevgeny Shestopalov even encouraged members of the public to “engage in procreation on breaks” while at work. This is not strictly an issue for Russia, as China is experiencing a decline in marriage and birth rates, as the birth rate fell to one woman per child in 2023, and the number of marriages dropped to 7,680,000 last year.
What People Are Saying
Alexey Raksha, a Russian demographer in Moscow, told Newsweek about Russian divorce rates and how they have an interesting effect on fertility rates.
He said that Russia’s divorce rate, one of the highest in the world, has been high for many decades since the late 1960s, and that the “average length of the marriage which ends up in divorce is around 8 or 9 years. So, divorces are occurring in this calendar year mostly of marriages that have been concluded 8 or 9 years prior.”
Raksha also said that Russia’s high divorce rate seems to be maintaining the current fertility rate rather than depressing it. He said: “The highest fertility among different groups of women divided by their marital status is highest among women in a second or third or fourth official marriage, not the first. So, it means that the new partnership, especially new marriage is often solidified by the birth of new children.”
He noted that what he coined “fictitious divorces” had become more popular in certain regions including the Chechnya, Ingushetiya, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkar and Karachay-Cherkess republics in 2021 as single mothers could access more money in government subsidy payments to reduce poverty than those who were married, as they had less assets for the government to base their payments on.
What Happens Next
If Russia’s divorce rates rise, Putin’s concern about the country’s low birth rate may be eradicated, as Raksha noted that the fertility rate is maintained by the high divorce rate.
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