A Statistical Glimpse at Russia's Multiple Demographic and Human Resource Problems

Eberstadt seeks to illuminate recent demographic trends in Russia through the analysis of data with commentary. Eberstadt concentrates on four principle areas of crisis: Russia's paradox of high levels of education but very low levels of human capital, its disastrous health profile, the problem of "knowledge production", and an outlook on demographics and human resources. The picture that Eberstadt paints through his visual charts and graphs is a very pessimistic one for the Russian Federation. Clear commentary on the data provides the reader with a greater contextualization of why Russia is not a fully developed nation in terms of economics, health, and the production of knowledge. Indeed, as Eberstadt shows, Russia lags behind many developing nations in indices of morbidity and mortality and indicators of advanced economies.