I previously linked to analysis of Russia’s startlingly bad health statistics.

Last night I was down at Eton College addressing the school’s busy Slavonic Society on the Psychology of Bigness, with special reference to Russia.

I used one graph from this piece to show just how grim Russia’s situation is from a demographic point of view.

Have a look at the two WHO graphs plotting how mortality rates decline as a country’s wealth goes up (healthier people, fewer stupid accidents, better educated people and so on).

Russia is in a league of its own: a fairly wealthy and well educated society, having catastrophic and avoidable mortality rates (deaths to younger people caused by epidemic HIV, traffic accidents, TB, chronic alcoholism, smoking and so on).

Let’s consider “external causes” of death such as injury or poisoning. In 2006, Russian death rates from external causes were almost three times higher than those states of the former Soviet bloc that joined the European Union in 2002. How does that compare with the world?

Well, in 2002, only six countries had death rates from external causes higher than 200 deaths per 100,000 people. Guess which was one of them? And just look in the next graph at the company it keeps. By these metrics, Russia’s health situation isn’t third world—it’s fourth world.

For a full and unrelentingly gloomy analysis of Russia’s death crisis, read this.

Still, when it comes to acting very tough, Russia’s Psychology remains indeed Big.

Does anyone have any better news?