A dwindling population rate has forced the government of Russia to plan to close more than 700 schools this 2013. The low numbers in its young population has corresponded to a low number of school age children.

Compared to China's one-child policy, which will become two-child by 2014, Russians have been urged to have more children, at least three, since 2012 by President Vladimir Putin.

"We plan to close 733 schools this year," Gennady Onishchenko, Russia's chief public health official, was quoted by the Interfax news agency. "You understand the reason: there aren't enough children."

A newborn infant, seconds after delivery. Amniotic fluid glistens on the child's skin.

"For some reason we have forgotten why we came into the world and we came with only one aim: to create new life, to continue our line," Mr Onishchenko, who has three children, added.

Based on an April 1, 2013 official population tally, Russia has 143,400,000 residents. It reached a historic peak at 148,689,000 in 1991, before the Soviet Union breakup. But then it began to decline, sliding 0.5 per cent annually to dropping birth rates, rising death rates and emigration.

Russia's population in 2012 jumped by 292,400 people.

In June 2013, Russia reported a 30 per cent spike in its birth rates since 2007.

For six years now, Russia has been implementing a "maternity capital" to encourage couples or families to have more children, preferably more than one child. Under the scheme, all women who gave birth to their second child after Jan 1, 2007 are qualified for a government-issued benefit of $12,600.

Although Russia recorded a jump in its birth rates in 2012 to 1.902 million births from the 1.796 million in 2011, based on figures from the state statistics agency, these still fail to offset the growing death rates in the anti-gay country.

With no school-age children to teach and educate, Russia, which has more than 44,000 schools, decided to close almost 1,000 schools this 2013.

Given the trend, Russia's total population has been forecast to dip to 130.8 million by 2030, according to the state statistics agency.