Armenia's population continues to decline
By Rashid Shirinov
The population of Armenia continues decreasing in number, thus further worsening the demographic crisis in the country, which is caused by social and economic problems that the Armenian government fails to solve.
The population of Armenia as of July 1, 2017, according to the current register based on the census of 2011, is 2,979,900 people, says the preliminary data by the National Statistical Service of the country. Thus, Armenia’s population has decreased by 15,200 people compared to the same period in 2016.
The interesting fact is that 8,700 Armenians left the country since the beginning of 2017, but the natural growth of the population was only 2,500 people. This shows the doleful situation of the Armenian demography.
Moreover, the birth rate in Armenia also decreased. In January-June 2017, the number of births in the country decreased by 6.6 percent compared to the same period in past year, making 17,169 people. In contrast, the number of deaths increased by 2.1 percent, amounting to 14,709.
Today, Armenia suffocates in a bunch of unresolved problems – increasing emigration, corruption, inflation, unemployment, poverty, falling exports, demographics and many others.
Therefore, the Armenian population, which cannot stand all these problems, decides to leave abroad. It is noteworthy that since the proclamation of independence in 1991, the Armenian population has decreased by almost 700,000 people.
In addition, thousands of Armenians leave the country because they cannot find any job to feed their families.
Meanwhile, the Armenian leadership continues to take huge debts from abroad, despite the state debt has already exceeded $6 billion. However, nothing changes in a positive direction in Armenia – people continue to live in poverty. Unofficial Armenian sources note that the number of poor in Armenia has long ago exceeded one million people – that is more than a third of the country’s population.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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