Number of first graders drops in Armenia

In 2018, Armenian schools welcomed nearly 39,000 first graders. By 2024, the number had dropped to around 34,800, according to official figures shared by Yerevan State Medical University Rector Armen Muradyan.

The decline has not been steady. Official data show 36,161 first graders in 2020, followed by a temporary rise to about 40,000 in 2022, partly due to an increase in births in 2016-2017 and some return migration. Since then, however, the downward trend has resumed, with the 2024 figure falling below 35,000.

“The fluctuations are largely explained by ‘waves’ in birth rates, as well as migration and population movements,” Muradyan wrote on Facebook on Monday.