The second national census
started yesterday in the regions of Primorye, Kamchatka and Magadan in
Russia’s far eastern.
The initiative however, has met with the staunch
criticism of the Orthodox Church.
The collection of data will take ten
days, and preliminary data on the total Russian population will be
published in March 2011.
The census has been criticized by the Russian Orthodox
Church and the political opposition, which has highlighted the high cost
of collecting and analyzing the information.
The economic
cost had threatened the cancellation of the entire project, but
eventually the government found the funds and justified the initiative
as "necessary for the development of social programs."
The Orthodox Church, however, complains about the lack of
a"faith" option in the questionnaire that will be submitted to the
people.
"They are afraid to know the extent of the spread
of religion in our society," said Vladimir Vigilyansky, spokesman for
the patriarch of Moscow Kirill.
According to data collected the last time in 2002, the Russian population is made up of 145.2 million people.
For the Swiss Federal Institute of Statistics, however, the Russians are currently about 142 million.
The problem that is gripping political power and the Orthodox Church is the steady decline in the birth rate in the country.
According
to experts' forecasts, the population of the Russian Federation could
drop to just one hundred million by 2050, the majority of whom may be
Muslim.
The causes are well known: a low birth rate, also
due to alcoholism among men and the widespread practice of abortion,
which in 2004 exceeded the number of births (1.6 million versus 1.5
million).
SIC: AN/INT'L