Demographic problems of the industrial cities of Irkutsk Region in the 1990s

Abstract

The author analyzes the problems of demographic development of industrial cities of the Angara area (Priangarye) in the 1990s. In particular, it focuses on the negative trends in the natural movement and migration of the urban population, which, in turn, led to depopulation. Distribution of municipal formations of the Irkutsk region in the total value of the mortality rate allows you to detect only the most general trends. The minimum level of total mortality was recorded in the south-eastern and central parts of the region, as well as in most large and medium cities. The highest values of total mortality rates were observed in the northern areas of the region and a number of rural and single-industry towns in central and eastern part of the region. Mostly, it's economically depressed municipalities with single-industry economy. According to the author, the causes of demographic instability in many industrial cities were laid during the Soviet period and were associated with the practice of attracting population and populating areas of new industrial development. The economic crisis and the aggravation of social problems in the 1990s seriously complicated demographic development of the urban population in the region. The demographic crisis of the 1990s could have been significantly smoothed over, if the federal and regional authorities had taken steps to stop the steady depopulation. In the context of the collapse of the political system demographic policy for many years had been pushed into the background. As a result, the demographic crisis, which takes root in the 1980s, fully manifested itself at the regional level in the first post-soviet decade.