Mortality impact from coronavirus infection on life expectancy of Russia's regions

Foreign and Russian studies prove the signifi cant impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the scale of excess mortality which inevitably leads to falling life expectancy. In 2020, Russians’ life expectancy decreased by 1.8 years compared to the previous year and amounted to 71.5 years which raises concerns about achieving the target of the national project “Demography” and actualizes the study of its dynamics in Russia under the infl uence of new epidemiological conditions. The signifi cant regional differentiation of the indicator in the country makes it necessary to study the impact of COVID-19 mortality on it in the context of Russia’s entities which is the purpose of this work. In the analysis, we have paid much attention not only to spatial, but also to gender differences in the parameters of life expectancy due to the signifi cant gap in its magnitude between Russian men and women. The main research method is the calculation of life expectancy at birth including taking into account the elimination of mortality from coronavirus infection (mortality tables with the complete exclusion of the studied cause of death). By calculating the diff erence between life expectancy at birth and its value taking into account the elimination of mortality from COVID-19, we have determined the loss of life expectancy due to coronavirus infection. After the calculations, we have carried out a multidimensional grouping of Russia’s regions according to the ratio of the level of life expectancy at birth and the magnitude of its reduction due to mortality from COVID-19. According to the results of the grouping, we have identifi ed seven types of Russia’s entities. The conducted research makes it possible to determine the vulnerability degree of Russian regions simultaneously from the standpoint of the life expectancy and from the standpoint of the size of its losses from COVID-19 which is extremely important for monitoring the epidemiological situation and responding competently to its challenges.