Russians Not As Suicidal As They Used to Be. Hurrah.

choi

Lots To Be Suicidal About. Strategy Page, Oct 30, 2011.
http://strategypage.com/qnd/russia/articles/20111030.aspx

Quote:

"The rate began increasing in the 1980s, and peaked in 1995 at 42 per 100,000. But it has declined since then, to 23.5. This is the sixth highest in the world, and more than twice the U.S. rate.

"The loss of an empire that had taken several centuries to build, caused widespread dismay among ethnic Russians * * * While still the largest (in size) country in the world, in terms of population they dropped from third to eighth (and soon to be passed by Bangladesh).

Note:
(a) Country Comparison: Area.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publ ... order/2147rank.html
(top ten: Russia > Canada> US > China > Brazil > Australia > India > Argentina . Kazakhstan > Algeria)
(b) Well, regarding population (see quotation 2 above), CIA has different views. Populations of Russia and Bangladesh are 138,739,892 (No 9 in the world) and 158,570,535 (No 7; both of July 2011 est.). CIA World Factbook.

Country Comparison: Population
https://www.cia.gov/library/publ ... order/2119rank.html

(c) The article states, "In economic terms, Russia is now the 11th largest economy (right behind Canada)."
(i) Strategy Page is talking about GDP as measured by foreign exchange rate. See list of countries by GDP (nominal)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)
(ii) Adjusted with purchasing power parity (PPP), Russia is No 7--just ahead of UK (8) and Brazil (9)--and Canada No 15.

Country Comparison: GDP (Purchasing Power Parity)
https://www.cia.gov/library/publ ... order/2001rank.html

CIA World Factbook does not publish data about GDP (nominal).

(d) Immediately following in the article is "Before, no one is sure, but the Soviet Union may have been in the top five. The communists were not big fans of accounting, and liked to make things up when asked for economic data."

That is because after Soviet Union collapsed, world Bank threw all Soviet data out of window, claiming they were unreliable. CIA World FactBook, however, estimated Soviet GDP--not Japan's--as the second largest in the world (after US), on the eve of the collapse.