Armenia facing demographic crisis, warns opposition MP

Armenia is on the brink of a demographic crisis, with all key population indicators deteriorating in 2025 compared with last year, opposition lawmaker Tadevos Avetisyan said on Monday, citing official statistics.

In a social media post on Monday, the Hayastan faction MP revealed that the vitality ratio (the number of births relative to deaths) dropped by nine percentage points to 118.8% in January-August this year. Natural population growth fell by 32% to 3,227, as births declined by 6.3% to 20,437 and deaths rose by 0.8% to 17,210.

The number of marriages fell by 14% to 8,985, while divorces increased by about 5% to 3,179. Infant mortality increased by 7.5% to 147 cases among children under one and by 10% to 181 cases among children under four.

Avetisyan said emigration also continued, with departures exceeding arrivals by about 5,200 people.

He blamed the trends on the government’s “anti-social policies”, claiming that living standards have fallen for about 40% of Armenia’s population, particularly among pensioners, welfare recipients and low-income workers.

“These alarming demographic trends defined the past seven years of the current government,” Avetisyan said.