The number of legal marriages in Russia is decreasing. Most marriages end in divorce. Most divorced women either do not remarry, or these remarriages also break up. Many unmarried couples live together but do not register their marriage. They are afraid of losing their houses, apartments, and other valuable property in the event of a divorce. Because of these doubts, they refuse to register their marriage and have children with their partner if the woman already has a child from her ex-husband or partner. But and married couples often limit themselves to one child due to uncertainty about the strength of the marriage. The average number of children in cohabiting couples is significantly fewer than that of legal spouses. Divorces and cohabitations have become socially acceptable phenomena in Russian society. This has a negative effect on the birth rate. The demographic policy in Russia somewhat improves the conditions for the birth of children in families that already exist. However, this has little effect on the creation of new families and the preservation of existing families, that is, on stimulating entry into registered marriage, and on the prevention of divorces. To solve these problems, serious changes are needed both in family laws and in the attitude of Russian society towards marriage, divorce and cohabitation.