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Kremlin Official Demands Russian Youth Have Three Children Before 35 Amid Historic Birth Rate Collapse
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Valentina Matviyenko, the Speaker of the Russian Federation Council, has publicly demanded that Russian citizens focus on building large families, establishing careers, and having at least three children before they turn 35 years old.
This announcement comes as Russia faces its worst demographic crisis in modern history, with only 1.222 million babies born in 2024, followed by a further 4% decline to 288,800 births in the first quarter of 2025, and a drop to 272,000 births in the first quarter of 2026, according to The Moscow Times on July 1.
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The total fertility rate in the country sank to 1.305 children per woman by the end of 2025, reaching its lowest point since 2006, while the Russian government officially classified and hid all demographic data regarding births, deaths, and population size starting in the spring of 2025.
Matviyenko made these statements during a meeting with participants of the Memory Train cultural and educational project. She argued against expanding the legal definition of youth past the current limit of 35 years, stating that young people need to understand their primary social and reproductive responsibilities before hitting that age threshold.
“Some, indeed, suggest extending the period of youth… I believe that we should not lower the threshold… It seems to me the optimal decision is up to 35 years, but so that young people understand that before 35 years, and better even earlier, it is necessary to create a family, it is necessary to give birth to at least three children, to achieve success in the profession, and only then move on to another age category,” Matviyenko said.
The speaker has previously introduced various aggressive measures to boost the birth rate as the population continues to shrink. Her past proposals include setting up a special corporate club for companies that pay employees 1 million rubles ($11,400) upon the birth of a child, creating demographic key performance indicators for state-owned corporations, and establishing a specialized demographic task force among government officials.
She has also publicly urged citizens to have five children each and move into spacious houses instead of crowding into apartments in large cities.
Independent estimates by demographer Alexey Raksha indicate that the total number of births for the entirety of 2025 dropped to 1.178 million infants, which is 4% lower than the previous year and below the previous historic low of 1.215 million recorded in 1999.
Raksha noted that the first quarter of 2026 saw 17,000 fewer births than the same period in 2025, describing the recent collapse in birth rates as the worst the country has experienced since the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Despite the Kremlin launching a multi-trillion ruble "Demography" national project and mandating aggressive family-centered strategies to boost the total fertility rate, Vladimir Putin's efforts failed to halt the decline, and Russia lost approximately 4 million people between 2018 and 2024 as the mortality rate heavily outweighed the birth rate.
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