Russian Cross

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For the three-bar cross used by the Russian Orthodox Church, see Orthodox cross.

Russian Cross refers to a demographic trend in Russia. Since 1988 birth rates among native Russians have been declining, while since 1991 the death rates have been climbing. In 1992, the number of deaths exceeded the number of births, and has continued to do so ever since. When this trend is plotted on a line graph starting from the mid-1980s and continuing to the present, the lines cross at 1992, hence the name. There is no apparent causative link between the two trends, but the graph has become a symbol of Russia's increasingly serious population shrinkage.