Gender disbalance deepening in Armenia

Armenian historian and demographer Mikayel Malkhasyan has said that gender disbalance is deepening in the country.

He made the remarks in an interview with Armenian media, Caliber.Az reports.

"It should be taken into account that women in our society outnumber men in terms of numbers and average life expectancy. In addition, there is a clear tendency in the migration picture, according to which four out of five labour migrants are men, i.e. the migration behaviour of men is more active; a significant proportion of them do not return to Armenia. As a result, the imbalance between men and women of reproductive age is deepening," the demographer said.

According to statistics, in 2022, the population of Armenia was 2,976,000. The number of births was 36,353, while the number of deaths was 26,805. The natural increase was 9,548 people.

In 2021, the country’s population was 2,961,000, with 36,623 births and 34,388 deaths. The natural increase was 2,235 people.

He said that human resources are extremely important for Armenia, as they not only solve scientific, technical, social and economic issues but are also vital for replenishing the armed forces, given that the country has been in a multi-year conflict with Azerbaijan.

According to him, after the 1988 Spitak earthquake to this day, the negative migration balance was to some extent offset by a positive difference in the birth-to-death ratio. Consequently, high emigration was partially compensated, and Armenia's population decreased not by 1.2 million, but by half that number in 35 years.

"Right now, the birth rate per adult woman is 1.7, when it should be at least 2.2. This means that at some point in history, we will have fewer births than deaths," Malkhasyan said.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the birth rate in Armenia has steadily declined, exceeding the minimum threshold as early as 1993.

In the first quarter of this year, 2,000 more people were born than died in Armenia, but the demographer considers this figure to be insignificant, as it will not provide much population growth in the long term.

"After independence, having one child, at best two, in an Armenian family is considered moderate, and there are fewer and fewer families with many children," says Malkhasyan.

He adds that Armenia's demographic situation was also negatively affected by the 44-day war of 2020.

"There are more than 4,000 dead and missing from the 2020 war in Armenia, which is a big blow to the national gene pool because it affects the age balance of future marriages and the birth rate in general," Malkhasyan said.

It is known that the majority of Armenian military personnel who died were born between 2000 and 2002 when there was a low birth rate. It appears that some girls born in these years, unable to find a husband of their peers, will be forced to marry men of other age groups.