Les Jones

Population > Russia's "Day of Conception"

AP:

A Russian region best known as the birthplace of Vladimir Lenin has found a novel way to fight the nation's birthrate crisis: It has declared Sept. 12 the Day of Conception and for the third year running is giving couples time off from work to procreate.

The hope is for a brood of babies nine months later on Russia's national day. Couples who "give birth to a patriot" during June 12 Russia Day festivities win money, cars, refrigerators and other prizes. Ulyanovsk, a region on the Volga River about 550 miles east of Moscow, has held similar contests since 2005. Since then, the number of competitors and the number of babies born to them have been on the rise.

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Russia, with one-seventh of the Earth's land surface, has 141.4 million citizens, making it one of the most sparsely settled countries in the world. With a low birthrate and a very high death rate, the population has been shrinking since the early 1990s. It is falling by almost half a percent each year. Demographic experts expect the decline to accelerate, estimating Russia's population could fall below 100 million by 2050.