The article analyzes the regional characteristics of the demographic processes and demographic structures in the Astrakhan region. The study of demographic processes and the ability to control them, understanding of the changes occurring in them, both at the federal and regional level, have a great theoretical and practical significance. The article aims at analyzing statistical indicators of demographic processes and structures in the period from 2002 to 2013. The main source of information are the results of the All-Russian census , conducted in 2002 and 2010 , as well as the official statistical data of the Federal State Statistics Service of the Astrakhan region. The article presents a comparative analysis of gender, age and marriage – family structure . The peculiarities of the flow of regional demographic processes such as fertility, mortality, marriage and divorce are discovering. The phenomenon of cohabitation and non-marital births is bringing out. The author reveals the demographic problems of the region , such as an aging population , growing demographic burden on the territory , reducing the number of working-age population , the growth of the level of divorce and cohabitation . The author highlights the following features of the demographic processes of the Astrakhan region , demographic processes are gradually transferred into the European type which has characteristics like, decrease in fertility and mortality levels , steady process of population aging , the predominance of women over men in the older age groups , a higher age of marriage and age of children birth, high levels of unregistered marriage ( cohabitation ) , the growth of non-marital births , high divorce rate , and serial monogamy ( increase in the number of repeated marriages)
