Disappearing Demographic Data: Rosstats Silence Amidst War and Crisis

Russia’s state statistical agency, Rosstat, has ceased the publication of monthly birth and death statistics, coinciding with a worsening demographic crisis and ongoing military losses in the conflict with Ukraine.

In a notable change, Rosstat released its recent monthly socio-economic report without any details on births, deaths, migration, or the overall population for the first time last week.

Earlier this year, the agency had already halted the release of regional data pertaining to births and deaths.

Demographer Alexei Raksha remarked at that time, «Since March 2025, there has been almost no demographic data available to the public in Russia.» He interpreted the comprehensive suppression of regional demographic statistics as a clear indication of ineffective demographic policies at the regional level.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), based in the United States, connected this latest data blackout to the Kremlin’s attempts to “mask the significant personnel losses of the Russian military.”

Raksha substantiated this assertion with information from an undisclosed region that reportedly indicated a decline in life expectancy for men from 66 years in 2024 to 61 by mid-2025, while women’s life expectancy remained stable at 75 years.

Since the beginning of its large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has progressively limited access to demographic information that experts have relied upon to estimate wartime fatalities, including deaths categorized by age, region, and cause.

Rosstat’s data blackout in May follows a report earlier this year that indicated just 90,500 births in February, marking the lowest monthly total in over 200 years. Raksha estimates that the first quarter of 2025 may have recorded the fewest births since the early 1800s.

On Saturday, federal legislator Nina Ostanina shared a petition from a collective of economists urging the government to clarify the absence of data and requesting that Rosstat resume the publication of national birth and death statistics.