Russia Population

Russia has been in slow demographic decline for a generation, the product of low fertility and high mortality among working-age men. The shock of the Soviet collapse in the 1990s left a dent in the age structure that still echoes through the number of women of childbearing age today. The war since 2022, with its casualties and a fresh wave of emigration, has added to the strain on an already shrinking, ageing population, one of the country's quietest strategic problems.

Russia is home to about 144 million people in 2026, the 9th largest population of any country. In Eastern Europe, where it lies, that future is driven by fertility, longevity and the movement of people across its borders. It packs in roughly 9 people per square kilometre.

Having topped out near 150 million around 1992, Russia has entered the long, slow decline now spreading across much of the world. Its population is projected to fall to roughly 136 million by 2050 and about 126 million by 2100.

The median age is set to climb from about 40 today to roughly 45 by 2100, even as life expectancy improves from about 73 years. A rising median age means fewer working-age people supporting each retiree over time.

Fertility sits at about 1.46 births per woman, below the replacement level of roughly 2.1, so without migration the population would eventually shrink. Net inward migration adds to the population each year and partly offsets the low birth rate.

These figures follow the UN's medium variant, the most widely cited scenario. The low and high variants, driven mainly by differing fertility assumptions, fan out into a wide range by 2100, so treat each number as a central estimate rather than a precise forecast.