MOSCOW, October 1 (Itar-Tass) —— A quarter of Russia’s elderly people are lonely, the head of the federal statistics service, Alexander Surinov, told the media on Monday.
“In our country many elderly people live with their families. About 50 percent of retirees have relatives, but the number of lonely old people is 24 percent. This is a large share. All of them have to support themselves,” he said. “For instance, in the republic of Ingushetia the number of lonely elderly people is a tiny 2.3 percent, in Dagestan, 10.7 percent, and in the Chechen Republic, 7.2 percent.”
The Central Federal District has the oldest population. The number of elderly people there is 9.5 million – 53.7 percent of the total. In Moscow alone there are 2.7 million people are past the retirement age.
Surinov said the employment of urban population within the age group of 60 to 64 is 31.6 percent, and of rural population, 25 percent, but in the age group of 65 through 72 the index is down to 10.5 percent.
According to the Rosstat chief, farming is the most popular pursuit among the working elderly people. As many as 8.6 percent of retirees are employed in agriculture, and 6.4 percent keep working in education. The smallest share of retirees is employed in finance (two percent) and extraction of mineral resources (1.9 percent).
“Approximately five percent of managers are senior citizens,” Surinov said.
However, old age has no great impact on salaries or wages.
According to Rosstat’s 2011 statistics Russia has nearly 33 million old age retirees. Their average monthly pension is 9000 rubles (roughly 300 dollars).
Surinov recalled that Russia’s retirement ages were among the world’s lowest – 55 years for women and 60 for men. In the EU countries and the US the retirement age is 65, and in Japan, 70.