[Comparative characteristics of the demographic aging dynamics of the Russia populations: 1959-2020.]

The objective of the study was a comparatiave analysis of the demographic aging of the Russia and France populations using a new concept of aging - prospective age - which characterizes life expectancy, population health, and other parameters. The study was conducted using official data from the International Mortality Database and Demographic Yearbooks of Russia. The rates of dynamics and directions of traditional and alternative indicators of aging, person-years lived, life expectancy, life potential, life balance index, mortality, age at death and survival in age groups as well as in the entire populations of Russia and France over the past 60 years were studied. It was found that the growth rates of traditional indicators of aging, originally more favorable, in Russia were higher than in France, and the direction of alternative indicators was negative. Unlike the population of France, the dynamics of age-specific life expectancy for men and women in Russia significantly lagged behind the increase in person-years lived, as a result of which the life balance index decreased in Russia but remained high in France due to more positive dynamics. Important factors in the unfavorable aging of Russians were high mortality and a lower age at death, which was due not only to a lower age at death, but also to a larger proportion of deaths in younger age groups. Compared to the progressive aging of the France population, the aging of the Russia population is regressive. The country lacks demographic conditions for progressive aging and the emergence of «young» old people, since the dynamics of life expectancy as well as life potential in general does not progress, remaining monotonically oscillatory against the background of an increase in the average age of the population, especially among men, due to high and premature mortality. The features of regressive aging in Russians and the criteria for progressive aging in the developed Western countries, by the example of France, were determined.