YEREVAN. – A total of 43,340 births were recorded in Armenia in January-December 2011, which were 1,485 less than the same time period for 2010. This is noted in the state program on improvement of the demographic situation, which was approved at Thursday’s Cabinet session.      

A total of 19,183 babies were born in January-June 2012, which is a drop by 812 births—or 4.1 percent—as compared with the same time period in 2011. To compare, close to 80,000 babies were born in Armenia in 1990. Also, the lowest birth rate in the country was recorded in 2001, with solely 32,000 newborns.

The aforesaid program notes that a key cause for the still-low rate of birth in Armenia is the insufficient number of marriages; and this number reduced in January-June 2012, as compared with the same period of time in 2011.   

The natural increase coefficient was 4.7 per mil (for every thousand people) in 2011, against 5.2 per mil in the previous year. This indicator likewise dropped in January-June 2012, as compared with the same time period last year, reducing from 3.3 per mil to 2.6 per mil.