The Number of Orphan Russian Children Falls, Changes to Russian Adoption Practices
The number of orphan Russian children went down to 93,000 in 2014 from 119,000 orphans two years ago, after the government introduced changes to Russian adoption practices. The government stressed the following factors played the key role in this: the introduction of grants and pensions for disabled Russian children and the families, who adopt them and their siblings, various financial assistance of foster families.
Russian Children Statistics
| ‘It is a big step forward’, said the deputy Prime-Minister Golodets. But is it really? This positive, on the face of it, tendency must be compared against other demographic statistics. And this is where it becomes tricky. |  |
The overall number of Russian children aged 10-17 years has decreased over the last 15 years by 8.5 million and is currently only 10.7 million children. 3 million married couples do not have children at all. While Russia has achieved substantive results in decreasing infant mortality, the situation with older children is not as impressive. Teenagers die 3 times more often in Russia than in Europe. Russia is one of the top ranking countries in children suicides.
Russian Adoption Tendencies
On the brighter side, there has been a significant increase in the number of families wanting to adopt children, and the average time for adoption has decreased from 6-9 months to 3 months. This, without saying, gives hope to many Russian children deprived of parental care and is very encouraging, particularly in the light of various adoption bans and restrictions introduced by the Russian government in recent times.
Read more on family law developments and statistics:
RUSSIA IS THE TOP DIVORCING NATION. RUSSIAN DIVORCE STATISTICS
RUSSIA EXPANDS ADOPTION BAN TO COUNTRIES WHERE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE IS LEGAL