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Jordan King is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her current focus is on religion, health, food safety and population. She has covered the persecution of religions in the global south, fertility and birth rate issues around the world, multiple disease outbreaks in the U.S. and ongoing vaccination discourse. Jordan joined Newsweek in 2024 from The Evening Standard and had previously worked at Metro.co.uk, she has background in international human-interest stories and is a graduate of Kingston University, in London. You can get in touch with Jordan by emailing j.king@newsweek.com. Languages: English.
Jordan King
US News Reporter
Life expectancy in Russia has decreased by almost seven months, and it is because of war and strong alcohol, a Russian demographer has said.
Alexey Raksha, who specializes in fertility and mortality statistics, made the comment to Russian business media outlet Vpost.
Newsweek has contacted the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation and its Information Department via email for comment.
Why It Matters
If the dip in life expectancy in Russia is indeed because of the war, at least in part, it lays bare one of the many fallouts of the deadly war.
Last year, Russian forces fighting against Ukraine suffered the highest casualty numbers of any year since the start of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion, according to Kyiv.
This has an economic impact due to the compensation for families of casualties, high wages required to entice new troops and the worker shortage it exacerbates.
What To Know
Last year, Russia’s life expectancy dropped almost seven months from 73.41 years in 2023 to 72.84 years, according to preliminary data from Rosstat.
“There are no reasons for such a decrease, except for the war and strong alcohol,” Raksha said, adding: “It’s even lower than I thought.”
He argued that alcohol consumption had increased during the war years, but he credited the issue “to a greater extent” to what he considers “harmful government regulation”—he does not believe there is enough regulation on strong alcohol.
The last time there was a more significant decline was in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Between 2020 and 2021, life expectancy dropped from 73.34 years to 70.06 years.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin took office for the fifth time in May 2024, he said that one of his goals was to increase life expectancy in Russia to 78 years by 2030.
AP
What People Are Saying
Georgy Filimonov, the governor of Russia’s Vologda region, who also blames alcohol consumption for Russia’s mortality rates, said last year: “We cannot stand by indifferently while our fellow countrymen die. If the population is dying out, and dying out like in a war, who will come in place of them?”
He added: “Irreparable damage is being done to the health of future generations, to the economy, to our public, social and cultural life. And all this is happening under conditions of peace, not on the front line.”
What Happens Next
Moscow has introduced some restrictions on alcohol but previous leaders, including Soviet ones, have tried to change alcohol habits in Russia with limited success, Reuters reports.
Meanwhile, in terms of the war, Putin said on Thursday that Russia agrees in principle with the United States’ ceasefire proposal, but key terms still need to be negotiated. He stressed that any agreement should lead to lasting peace and address the root causes of the conflict.
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About the writer
Jordan King is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her current focus is on religion, health, food safety and population. She has covered the persecution of religions in the global south, fertility and birth rate issues around the world, multiple disease outbreaks in the U.S. and ongoing vaccination discourse. Jordan joined Newsweek in 2024 from The Evening Standard and had previously worked at Metro.co.uk, she has background in international human-interest stories and is a graduate of Kingston University, in London. You can get in touch with Jordan by emailing j.king@newsweek.com. Languages: English.
Jordan King
Jordan King is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her current focus is on religion, health, food safety and …
Read more
English