YEREVAN. – Armenia’s emigration rates are growing. Studies indicate that if this process continues, the country’s population will drop by 1.5 million by the year 2025, and by 2 million by the year 2050.

Communist Party of Armenia (CPA) Central Committee First Secretary Tachat Sargsyan stated the aforementioned at the CPA assembly on Friday.

Sargsyan recalled that when Armenia had joined the ex-Soviet Union, the country’s population was around 700 thousand, whereas after the collapse of the USSR, its population was close to 4 million.

“Today, the republic is aging; Armenia is 51st among the 91 aging countries.

“In the Soviet years, there were over 800 enterprises in the country. We were exporting our products to more than 150 countries. Now, however, 40 to 45 percent of the [country’s] able-bodied population is emigrating,” the Communist Party leader stressed.