Vladimir Putin: "If we want to survive as an ethnic group - or as ethnic groups living in Russia - there must be at least two children" If every family had only one child, the population would shrink, he says. Putin describes himself as a defender of "traditional values" that are based on family, nation and the Orthodox Christian faith.
The state statistics office estimated the population at the beginning of 2023 at 146.4 million people, a decline of nearly 149 million people from 20 years ago.