The number of children in Russian orphanages has decreased by half over the past three years, the Interfax news agency reported, citing deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets.
"In 2012, we had 119,000 orphans in our database, … now there are 73,000 orphaned children in Russia," Golodets said, Interfax reported Friday.
Despite a sharp reduction of the number of orphans, the percentage of children returned to orphanages after adoption remains high in Russia, Golodets said.
In 2012, more than 5,000 adopted children were returned to orphanages, according to statistics from usynovite.ru, a project of the Department of Education and Socialization of Children of the Russian Ministry of Education.
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