Russia under Putin lost nearly half its schools — war propaganda fills the rest

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. Russia now has fewer schools than Germany, even though its population is roughly half the size. Germany has more than 40,000 schools in 2026. Closures have been most severe in rural areas, where the number of state schools has fallen from more than 45,000 to around 21,000, a reduction of more than half.