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Soviet Union [USSR] Age and Sex Structure
The aspect of the population most affected by the cataclysmic
demographic events was its age and sex structure. The consequences
of World War II ensured that the existing surplus of women would
persist for at least another generation; more than four decades
after its conclusion, women, most of whom were born before the war,
still outnumbered men by about 16 million (see
table 9, Appendix A). This imbalance has had a profound impact on the economy, social
structure, and population reproduction in the Soviet Union. Before
the war, just under 40 percent of women were in the work force:
since 1970 they have been a slight majority of all workers. The
female component of the work force since the start of the war has
become an indispensable feature of the Soviet economy, and the
overwhelming majority of working-age women were employed in 1987.
Because a significant portion of an entire generation perished
in the war, marriages and births were fewer for some time
thereafter. The decline in the marriage and birth rates produced a
population pyramid with bulges and contractions in specific age and
sex groups and with significantly higher percentages of older women
at the top of the pyramid
(see
fig. 8). Expressed another way, in
1987 for every one dedushka (grandfather), there were almost
three babushki (grandmothers).
Because both the economic and the military might of a country
largely depend upon its labor force, the able-bodied population
(defined in the Soviet Union as males sixteen to fifty-nine years
of age and females sixteen to fifty-four years of age) was for
Soviet planners an increasing cause of concern. Additions to the
working-age population peaked in the 1970s, with a growth of almost
23 million; projected increases in the 1980s were expected to be
one-quarter that number, with a gradual improvement to one-half
(11.6 million) in the 1990s. This slowed growth placed a strain on
the economy in the late 1970s and early 1980s by requiring
continuous boosts in productivity
(see Soviet Union USSR - Labor
, ch. 11).
In 1985 the sexes were in rough balance, with a slight male
preponderance up to the population median age of 33.4 years. Beyond
the median age, however, women outnumbered men in the population
and in the work force. In some professions and economic sectors
(health care, trade, food services, social services, and physical
education, for example), more than 80 percent of all workers were
women.
Data as of May 1989
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