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The author offers a stark and chilling look at a society standing on the brink of a demographic crisis. The Russian Federation today faces the unprecedented dual challenge of simultaneously reversing the plummeting birth rates and skyrocketing mortality rates of the 1990s. What makes Russia’s demographic prognosis all the more dire is the sharp and proximate contrast to its Asian neighbors, which face the reverberations of a “health” explosion. As a result of astounding improvements in population health and longevity, Russia’s neighbors in the Asia-Pacific are traveling a very different demographic path.

Even China and India--which have long dealt with the challenges of large total populations and, like Russia, continue to face the challenges posed by emerging infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis--have seen a sharp improvement in the overall health and longevity of their populations.

Nicholas Eberstadt is the Henry Wendt Scholar at AEI.