Can I get some statistics pre and post USSR collapse?

[Broletariat]

Things like infant mortality rate, life expectancy, suicide rates, alcoholism, crime rates, etc. I'm having trouble locating this information just by Googling.

Thanks in advance.

[Noinu]

I know wikipedia can't be thought of as a truth horn, but the page seems still interesting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_Soviet_Union

There's also a thing on infant mortality rates pre and post.

[Rakhmetov]

Check out Dr. Michael Parenti's book Blackshirts & Reds. See Chapters 6 & 7

http://books.google.com/books?id=xsp4fPfv2gsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=blackshirts+and+reds&hl=en&src=bmrr&ei=nareTKmfFsL48Aaf3q2RDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

For some pre-collapse stats check On An Average Day In The Soviet Union (http://books.google.com/books?id=PO3GwtIrsnAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=on+an+average+day+in+the+soviet+union&hl=en&ei=k_PeTPLKN8Gs8AaXpqzSDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false)

[Sir Comradical]

In Russia, free-market reform resulted in…

GDP falling by by 54%.
(Stiglitz 2002, "Globalisation and its discontents")

Industrial Production falling by 60%.
(Stiglitz 2002, "Globalisation and its discontents")

Consumer Spending falling by 38% in one year.
(Parenti 1997, "Blackshirts & Reds")

Poverty increased from 2% in 1989 to 23% in 1998.
(Stiglitz 2002, "Globalisation and its discontents")

Child poverty increased to 50%.
(Stiglitz 2002, "Globalisation and its discontents")

Life Expectancy:
http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=sp_dyn_le00_in&idim=country:AUS&dl=en&hl=en&q=life+expectancy#met=sp_dyn_le00_in&idim=country:RUS

Natural Population Growth:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1e/Natural_Population_Growth_of_Russia.PNG/800px-Natural_Population_Growth_of_Russia.PNG

[Tavarisch_Mike]

Really scary to see how the birth rates and the death rates goes in opposite/wrong directions. Acording to the documentary "Death of a Nation" the expected living age of a man in Russia today, is 56 compared to 63 during Soviet times.

[Sir Comradical]

Really scary to see how the birth rates and the death rates goes in opposite/wrong directions. Acording to the documentary "Death of a Nation" the expected living age of a man in Russia today, is 56 compared to 63 during Soviet times.

Yes and the cause isn't alcoholism, it's capitalism which leads to alcoholism.

[chegitz guevara]

There was a great poster which showed how the cultural level of the CIS plummeted. I'll see if I can find it.

[Kiev Communard]

The population numbers in Russia alone plunged from 148,6 million people on 1990 to 142,2 million in 2008 (according to some statistics, to 137 million). That is the huge fall in itself. The number of people dead or "disappeared" in Chechnya alone in 1991-2005 was, according to former head of Chechnya's State Council, T. Jabrailov, almost 160 thousand people - more than the number of Chechens who perished as the result of Stalin's deportation (appr. 90 thousands).

[Tablo]

Interesting to see the drop in births and growth around the rise of revisionism.

[Sir Comradical]

Interesting to see the drop in births and growth around the rise of revisionism.

You sound like an ML. lol.

[blake 3:17]

The stats are really confusing. I was trying to look at them the other day, but they all refer to different geographies. The collapse of the Soviet Union did put in a dint in certain basic indices of a people's health and well being. Some of this appears as a hiccough which can be fairly normal for a massive social crisis.

I was surprised to see the literacy rate stay fairly level at 99 % -- the same is claimed for Canada, which I don't think is true. I think different standards are being applied.


I'd have the most confidence in the UN stats. They're more than tricky to read, but there does appear to be a fairly thorough process. This link is to the general UN stats page: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/default.htm Some of the reports are HTML, others PDF.