Azernews.Az

Friday March 29 2024

Number of women becoming mothers after 35 decreases in Azerbaijan

5 October 2018 17:32 (UTC+04:00)
Number of women becoming mothers after 35 decreases in Azerbaijan

By Kamila Aliyeva

In today fast-developing world, many women seek to postpone childbearing for later in life due to variety of reasons. The reasons might include pursuing academic degrees, building career, opening business, or marrying late.

These trends are observed globally. However, in Azerbaijan the situation has changed in the opposite direction.

Azerbaijan in recent years has seen a decrease in the number of women who become mothers after 35-40 years compared with the Soviet period.

In the 1970s, women over 40 became mothers of 6,000-8,000 out of 150,000-180,000 newborns in the country. For example, in 1970, women of 40-44 years old became mothers of 8,266 out of 150,976 babies in Azerbaijan, in 1975 – of 6,777 babies out of 141,857, and last year –of 1,299 babies only.

Despite the increase in the birth rate over the past 17 years, the number of women becoming mothers after 35 years went down.

In 2000, women aged 35-39 gave birth to 8,154 babies, in 2005 – to 7,653, in 2010 – to 6,958, in 2013 – to 7,280, in 2014 – to 7,027, in 2015 – to 7,231, in 2016 – to 7,233, and in 2017 – to 6,737 newborns.

The birth rate in Azerbaijan has also decreased in the past years.

The demographic policy of the state is an important tool for regulating the population. In some countries there is a real catastrophe with fertility, but Azerbaijan has never experienced such a problem. However, the recent figures show that there is a slight decrease in the birth rate. In 2015, 172,671 babies were born in Azerbaijan, in 2016, this figure amounted to 160,004, and in 2017, the indicator fell to 144,041.

According to the forecasts of the United Nations Population Fund, until 2025–2030, population growth will be observed in Azerbaijan. It will reach 11 million, but after that, there will be a period of demographic stagnation.

Also, boys are born by 10-11 percent more often than girls in the country. Thus, if not paying attention to this issue, a gender imbalance in a couple of decades can turn into a real demographic problem for Azerbaijan.

---

Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

Loading...
Latest See more