Recent trends and differentials among the Soviet Union's 15 republics and major nationalities are reviewed, focusing on fertility, mortality and urbanization, the prospect for labor supplies and military manpower, emigration, and projected population growth to 2000. Estimated at 270 million as of mid-1982, the Soviet population is currently growing at 0.8% a year, down from 1.8% in the 1950s. In 1981, the leadership instituted limited measures, partially differentiated by region, designed to raise fertility among Russians in particular. Low fertility, combined with rising mortality, is expected to reduce the Russian share of the total population from 52% in 1979 to 47% in 2000 while the share of high-fertility Muslim groups rises from 17% to 21%. Virtually all the sharply reduced national labor force growth in 1980-95 will come from the high-fertility, non-Slavic regions, a problem complicated by Central Asian Muslims' reluctance to migrate to labor-short urban areas in their own and other republics. Most capital investment now goes to defense, agriculture and energy, leaving little room for increased investment in health-care delivery, which could reduce death rates, or in housing, which might help raise fertility. Additional information is provided, supported by data presented in figures and tables. (Author/JN)