Population ageing in Russia: gender dimension

Gaiane Safarova, Saint-Petersburg Institute for Economics and Mathematics RAS
Lenar Kozlov, Saint-Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology of the North-West Branch of RAMS
Alexander Lisenenkov, Russian Academy of Sciences
Anna Safarova, Saint-Petersburg Institute for Economics and Mathematics RAS

Population ageing is a triumph and a challenge for development in the 21st century. Russia’s population is rapidly ageing, and with ageing progress the need for thorough analysis of this process increases. Demographic development of Russia is characterized by very high mortality difference by sex and by significant imbalance between males and females in the population age composition. In the Madrid International Plan of Actions on Ageing it is stated that it is critical to ensure the integration of a gender perspective into all policies, programmes and legislation. The paper aims at analyzing gender differences in the development of population ageing in the Russian Federation since the beginning of the 1990s. Changes in number and percentage of the elderly (60+) and the number of males per 1000 females in older age groups are considered. Special attention is given to gender gap in life expectancy at older ages. Comparisons with developed European countries in regard to gender differences are made. Gender differences in prospective ageing measures are analyzed as well. In this connection gender imbalance in the age for which Remaining Life Expectancy is equal to 15 years is considered. The paper is based on censuses (including the last 2010 census) and data on vital events given by Rosstat, and on Human Mortality Database (University of California, Berkeley, USA, and Max Plank Institute for Demographic Research, Germany). Results of the study may contribute to better understanding of regularities of population ageing. Ageing process in Russia is characterized by significant imbalance between males and females in population age structure, moreover, the older is the age the greater is imbalance. Male life expectancies are lower than female ones, leading to high prevalence of widowhood, the latter increasing with age. Without taking account of gender differences, ageing policies are doomed to be ineffective.