Russia's weaker sex

ALMOST six million Russian men are missing from the nation's expected statistical profile-killed by drink, accidents, suicide, poor healthcare and high male infant mortality.

This alarming figure has been released in a United Nations report that gives grim support to the growing concern over Russia's falling birthrate, low life expectancy and unusually high male mortality rate.

It comes amid reports of the reappearance on Russia's borders of diseases such as anthrax and bubonic plague, once considered conquered but now causing deaths in Siberia and southern Russia.

Britain has taken a lead in trying to focus Western aid on halting the slide in public health. After a promise given at the last Group of Eight meeting in Germany in June, Britain is to target specific aid programs at improving healthcare in Russia.

Russia's population has fallen by two million in the past decade already, from 148 million to 146 million. A particular worry is the high death rate of men, maintaining Russia's unenviable position of having one of the biggest gender imbalances in the world-a position it held 50 years ago after the very high casualties of the Second World War. The UN report estimates that there are 5.9 million fewer men in Russia than there would be in a country where the sex ratio was the normal 96 men per 100 women.

In Ukraine, it says, there are a further 2.6 million men missing. Similar gaps are found in Belarus and Moldova. The total number of men missing from throughout the former Soviet Union is nine million.

The report says that the most alarming statistic is the sharp decline in life expectancy among Russian men. "Today life expectancy for males in the Russian Federation is only 58 years. This is ten years less than the life expectancy of men in China," it says. Latest Russian statistics have shown a slight rise, to 61 years.

Echoing studies done even in the Brezhnev era, the report finds many contributory factors. Suicide among Russian men is high and has increased markedly in the turmoil since the end of communism. Some 66 men out of every 100,000 killed themselves each year between 1989 and 1993-far more than anywhere else, except in the Baltic republics, and more than three times the average for the European Union. The comparable figure for women was 13. Alcoholism, largely a male affliction, also takes a heavy toll, with a related large number of industrial and domestic accidents. Men are especially vulnerable to alcoholic poisoning, heart disease and car crashes.

Infant mortality is high and this leads invariably to the death of more male babies, who are weaker than girls.

"The transition to a market economy has been accompanied by a demographic collapse and a rise is self-destructive behavior, especially among men," the UN report says. It attributes most of the deaths to widespread human insecurity, the main factors being a loss of earnings, a rise in economic uncertainty, job losses and a decline in social services.

Russia has long worried about its declining male population, but overall statistics are just as bleak. Russia has one of the highest rates of abortion in the world, with 66 for every 100 pregnancies. It has a correspondingly high rate of maternal mortality and the drop in total population in the first five months of this year was 346,700 people- or 0.24 per cent. This is almost double the decrease in the same period last year.