Mating and reproductive behavior of modern Russian youth

Steady natural population decline continues to be recorded in most regions of Russia. One of the priority factors influencing the continued depopulation of the country’s population is a change in the reproductive behavior of young people, which is expressed in postponing official marriage and birth of children to a later age period of 25-35 years, or a complete refusal to have children. This trend is a significant factor in reducing the number of young people themselves, and consequently the number of women of fertile age. According to Rosstat, by 2035 the population aged 14-35 years in Russia will decrease by almost 10%, and the number of Russian women in the active reproductive age of 20-29 years will almost halve. There are analyzed the key elements of the marital and reproductive behavior of young people, which are two interrelated processes: entry into an official registered marriage (an analysis of age-specific marriage rates by gender by federal districts was carried out) and the process of having the first and subsequent children (an analysis of age-specific fertility rates was carried out) with tracking of the dynamics indicators for a 21-year period with a five-year periodicity for 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016 and 2021 by population of four age groups of active reproductive age: 16-17 years; 18-24 years; 25-34 years; 35-49 years; 50-70 years (analysis for 2001 and 2006 of the age group 35-70 years). The results of the study confirmed that a distinctive feature of modern marital and reproductive behavior of young people in Russia is postponement of marital and reproductive debut to a later age stage, predominant focus on a small or medium-child lifestyle, while one of the main characteristics of the first stage of creating a family is premarital cohabitation.