[steve-b]

How do you explain the fact that 'deprived' Russians don't have a much higher birthrate?

Don't be ridiculous. Their current difficulties notwithstanding, Russia is firmly on the latter side of the divide between a subsistence-agriculture society and an industrial society. Thus, it retains the low birthrate associated with the latter. If it slipped back into a nation of peasant farmers, its birthrate (and deathrate) would rise accordingly.

[Torie]

Yes, but the Slav fertility rates cannot be explained by industrialization alone. Something else is going on. Macedonia is not all that industrialized btw, and might have say a 25% rural population as a guess. It also has about a 30% Albanian population with I assume a considerably higher birthrate, thus making the Slav number in Macedonia considerably lower.