MOSCOW, January 31. /TASS/. Russia’s population has grown naturally by 80,000 in the past three years, Labor and Social Protection Minister Maksim Topilin said at an enlarged meeting of the Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Committee for Social Policy.

"In the past three years, our population has naturally grown by more than 80,000," he said. "We hope that this trend will remain."

The minister noted that a number of regions, facing a negative birthrate trend, had reduced social support measures. He also pointed out that a positive birthrate trend as well as a trend for natural population growth remained in a large number of Russia’s regions which indicated that the local authorities had been taking right measures in order to support birthrate despite the decreasing number of reproductive-age women.