YEREVAN. – Over the course of the past twenty years, the birth rate dropped by more than twofold and the marriages reduced by approximately just as much in Armenia.  

Demographer Ruben Yeganyan noted the aforesaid during Thursday’s press conference devoted to World Population Day.

In his words, the new generation in Armenia reproduces at a rate of 70 percent at best, whereas there was a very favorable demographic situation in the 1970s and 1980s. 

“Why did this happen? Because our economic, social and political situation changed drastically,” Yeganyan noted.

As per the demographer, this situation leads to the fact that people either leave marriage to another time or refrain from marriage.   

“The birth rate [in Armenia] continues to fall. We had about 79,000 births in 1990, whirs 32,000 births in 2002. At one point it rose all the way to 47,000 [births], but now it drops to 43,000 [births], and this will continue,” Yeganyan said.

He also noted that emigration plays a 25-percent role in Armenia’s declining birth rate.

“The problem cannot be solved locally; the solution should be found in a systemic and a comprehensive way, so we may increase the birth rate by at least twice,” Ruben Yeganyan concluded.