Over 300,000 people leave Armenia in five years
By Rashid Shirinov
Armenians still remember the notorious promise of their president Serzh Sargsyan in which he claimed that the population of the country will reach 4 million by 2040. The statistics that Armenia’s National Statistical Service has shared this week makes it clear that Sargsyan’s speech was only his dream that will never come true.
The data shows that over the past five years, the number of permanent residents of Armenia has decreased by 302,400 people – in 2012, there were almost 3.3 million people in the country, but today their number cannot even reach 3 million. Since the beginning of the year, the number of permanent residents has decreased by 6,500 people and this trend continues to grow.
The Armenian government promised to raise the birth rate in the country during the first nine months of this year, but this figure has also decreased, and what’s more, this year is showing the lowest birth rate in Armenia in the last five years.
Only 27,655 children were born in the country in January to September, whereas the number of births in the same period of 2016 was 29,868, and 30,613 in 2015.
International observers also have bad news for Armenia – the report of UN published in 2015 predicted that the country’s population will decrease to 2,729,000 people by 2050, and to 1,793,000 by the turn of the century.
There are many reasons for why Armenia’s population is decreasing, but the main ones are the widespread unemployment, rampant corruption and lack of people’s confidence in the future with the current leadership of the country.
The unemployment rate in Armenia still remains highest in the CIS area, while the wages in the country keep falling down. Even young Armenians who have higher education face difficulties with finding a descent job, not to mention those who don’t have a university degree. Therefore, if young people have any opportunity, they leave Armenia for good.
Meanwhile, statistics show that every third citizen of Armenia lives in poverty, and this indicator is still growing. In addition, the conflicts with neighbors, including the occupation of Azerbaijani lands, do not allow Armenia to join any regional project and gain any benefits.
Thus, countless failures of the Armenian government because of its wrong domestic and foreign policy turns Armenia in a real desert with no people. There is no doubt that the country’s population is doomed to this deplorable situation until a qualified team comes to power.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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