The number of schools in Russia has fallen by 45% since the start of the century, with rural communities losing the most, according to a report by the Higher School of Economics published this month.
Russia's secondary school network has shrunk from 68,800 institutions in 2000 to just under 38,000 in 2026, the report says. The school-age population has fallen by around 13.5% over the same period, from 20.5 million to 17.7 million children.
