YEREVAN. – A drop in the number of births is recorded in Armenia for the past two years, Labor and Social Affairs Ministry Demography Department Head Vanik Babajanyan noted during a press conference on Tuesday.     

And this has occurred in the case when an increase in marriages and births was observed in the country between 2001 and 2010. Babajanyan explained that the number of births had increased during that period as a result of a change in the sex-and-age ratio, as the number of marriage-age people grew. But a study of the sex-and-age pyramid reveals that the number of births in Armenia will drop after 2015 because the potential brides and grooms will be those who were born in the 1990s, which were difficult years for the country.    

In his turn, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Armenia representative Garik Hayrapetyan said the Armenians are an aging nation, and more investments need to be made into the country’s public health and social security.    

Sociologist Karen Sargsyan, however, noted that the Armenians are not an aging nation, but rather Armenia’s population is aging because the youth want to leave the country. As per Sargsyan, primarily those with high qualifications are leaving Armenia today, in the case when mostly those with a vocational education were heading abroad in the previous years.