I translated some of thoses informations and put them on my Blog that treats of Russia : http://alexandrelatsa.blogspot.com

I confirm you this population growth in august
http://mosregionportal.ru/news/obschestvo/2343.html

По данным министра здравоохранения и социального развития РФ Татьяны Голиковой, впервые за последние 15 лет в стране зафиксирован естественный прирост населения.
Голикова отметила на заседании межведомственной группы по национальному проекту «Здоровье» и демографической политике при Совете президента Российской Федерации по реализации приоритетных национальных проектов и демографической политике, что август 2009 года показал увеличение населения России на одну тысячу человек. Так, к примеру, в августе этого года родилось 151,7 тысяч детей, а умерло 150,7 тысяч человек.

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Here are my main articles about demography in Russia : http://alexandrelatsa.blogspot.com/search/label/Demographie

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Best regards from Moscow

I believe that migration data is still picking up a number of people who have lived in Russia for a while but got to get legalized just now. Thus, actual population trend might be negative, but the level should be actually higher than we believe now. Next year’s census will probably give a higher population figure than the current one.

So, based on 2009 live data the population growth rate is likely to be negative. After all post-2010 Census data are incorporated – who knows?

Since the western Ukrainian economy is largely rural (industry generally involves food processing and such), it probably hasn’t taken a hit as has the economy of the steel-producing eastern Ukraine.

These factors probably account for Ukrainian demographic improvement in spite of the recent crash.

You can get a lot of info, more detailed than in the usual GKS monthly release, and most of it split by federation subjects.

Monthly numbers for births and deaths are the same as in Golikova report. I would be MUCH surprised to see the health minister without access to vital statistics as soon as they are ready. I hope Goskomstat would now switch to publishing the demo stats with data release on 12-14th day of the month (as it used to a while ago) instead of on 22-24th as is currently the case, given that we know how early the data is actually available.

Finally, it might happen that eventually the number for Aug 2009 natural growth would turn from 0+ to 0- as the data gets cleaned up and updated, but all the tendencies I report are based on the original data, as I mentioned. The deaths tendency was nothing short of astonishing.

Russia and the Ukraine is essentially the same population with similar attitudes and trends inherited of the Soviey past

Re-Ukraine. It’s very similar to Russia except in so far that it’s population is slightly older, and traditionally it’s life expectancy and fertility were both slightly higher (probably no longer the case, certainly for the latter anyway).

Perhaps births rose in Ukraine for the same reason as in Russia – the effects of women now having children they had postponed earlier is simply stronger than the delaying effect of the crisis? But why is the amelioration even more pronounced than in Russia? I agree it’s puzzling and deserves investigation.

Ukraine’s continued increasing birth rates are very surprising though. They’re practically in depression right now. I would expect them to be closer to the situation in Latvia (quite a huge drop in births), although I haven’t really looked at either country’s overall demographic structure so there might be some inherent underlying factor’s that I’m missing.

Estonia in Jan-Aug 2009 saw a 5.0% reduction in deaths and a 2.0% reduction in births relative to the same period in 2008. The annualized figures from this period, for 2008 and 2009, for births are 12.7 / 1000 and 12.1 / 1000 and for deaths are 12.3 / 1000 and 12.0 / 1000, and as such it has come within a sliver of seeing overall annual natural population growth.

The trends in Latvia are similar (though total figures remain worse) – Jan-Aug 2009 saw a 3.7% reduction in deaths and a 8.8% reduction in births relative to the same period in 2008. The annualized figures from this period, for 2008 and 2009, for births are 10.9 / 1000 and 10.0 / 1000 and for deaths are 13.7 / 1000 and 13.1 / 1000, and as such it has come within a sliver of seeing overall annual natural population growth.

There are English-language stats for Belarus online. Similar to the Baltics, Ukraine and Russia, during Jan-Aug the death rate fell from 13.9 / 1000 to 13.6 / 1000, however so did births – from 11.4 / 1000 to 11.0 / 1000. Total deaths fell by 0.9% and total births fell by 2.5%.

So in conclusion. Ukraine fared the best demographically, relatively speaking, during this crisis, with both mortality and fertility seeing substantial improvements – rather paradoxical considering the magnitude of its crisis.

Russia was second, where although the decline in GDP was large, society was partly shielded by public sector wage rises, the low levels of pre-crisis indebtedness, and translation of the $9300 maternity benefits from the future (i.e. for university education, apartment, etc) to straight cash.

The Baltics saw improved mortality rates, but their birth rates fell – substantially so in Latvia, which is in the deepest depression along with Ukraine. The public sector there has been axes and one should also note that the downturn in the Baltics began in early 2008, instead of in October as in Russia.

Interestingly, the most stable country, Belarus, which even saw slightly positive GDP growth (on paper anyway – I’ve had some sources telling me they’re fudging the stats), saw the smallest decline in mortality and a moderate fall in fertility.