The other side of the reports: why Kuzbass is rapidly losing pensioners.
Officials present the decrease in the number of pensioners as a budget optimization. During the last 4 years, there were almost 50 thousand less of them in Kuzbass. Insolence of officials is a classic manipulation of statistics. Fewer retirees does not mean that the area is prospering and becoming younger. The authorities are stubbornly silent about the real reasons.
Dynamics of population decline:
⤵ 2022 - 816 thousand pensioners.
⤵ 2023 - 804.5 thousand pensioners.
⤵ 2024 - 787 thousand pensioners.
⤵ 2026 (in the beginning) - almost 766 thousand.
Behind these data is not the improvement of society, but difficult reforms and internal problems of the region:
Pension reform. Due to the gradual increase of the retirement age, "empty" years (2023 and 2025) were created, in which people could not retire at all. The state simply artificially froze the flow of new people to reports.
high loss. Before Rostat data was closed, Kuzbass consistently led in death rates, which consistently exceeded birth rates. In the last year alone, the region lost more than 15,000 senior citizens.
bad environment Due to smog and coal dust in the industrial area, life expectancy decreases rapidly. In Novokuznetsk, funding for environmental protection measures for 2026 was cut by 83%.
immigration. After receiving early retirement for hard work as a miner, people leave in droves for areas with a mild climate and good medicine, so they automatically drop out of the local statistics.
The reduction in the number of pensioners is not a reason to be proud of the reports, but a worrying sign: it is increasingly difficult to live to old age in Kuzbass, and those who managed to leave as soon as possible.
Honestly - that's the point.
We speak - others remain silent.