The problem of demography and aging population still remains one of   the vital problems of Armenia

ArmInfo. The problem of demography and the rapidly aging population are still one of 

Armenia's most pressing problems. This problem did not passed aside the smallest district of Armenia Vayots Dzor.

According to the head of the Vayotsdzor regional agency of the 

national statistical service Arushan Ghazaryan, according to the 

population census in 2011, 52.5 thousand people lived in the region, 

whereas this year this figure is already 50.3 thousand. "The peak of 

migration came for 2015-16. It was during these years that most 

people left the region, today the rural population of the region is 

32.7 thousand, and the urban population is 17.6 thousand. It is 

noteworthy that not only external migration is observed in the 

region, but also internal migration. According to my observations, if 

earlier there was mass urbanization, then today there is a reverse 

process. Many people move to the villages, settle down and, thanks to 

employment in the agricultural sphere, provide their daily daily 

bread, "Ghazaryan said.

At the same time he highlighted a very important problem of the 

region, namely the problem of demography. According to him, due to 

serious migration, today the natural increase in the population in 

the region is at zero level, and the death rate exceeds the birth 

rate, that is, the population of the region is rapidly aging. It is 

noteworthy that a similar picture is observed in all regions of the 

republic. Ghazaryan said that to date, 19.7% of the region's 

population are children under 4 years old; 67.3% - from 4 to 65 

years; and accordingly 13% of citizens are over 65 years old.

Meanwhile, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Artem Asatryan 

assured that today in his ministry is developing projects that will 

seriously change the demographic situation in the country in the best 

direction.  "It's no secret that today the situation with demography 

is of concern to us, but I want to emphasize that this issue is at 

the center of our attention. To improve the situation, we need to 

ensure the fulfillment of three important tasks: the first is the 

increase in the birth rate in the republic because we have the 

necessary potential and we just need to remove the obstacles, the 

second is to ensure the mechanical growth of the population. "The 

President of Armenia set before us the task of bringing the number of 

people in the short term to 4 million, and today, projects are being 

developed to fulfill the set goal, and the last is to improve the 

quality of life of the population of Armenia. "I am deeply convinced 

that the successful fulfillment of these three tasks will allow us to 

change the demographic indicators in the country in the most serious 

way," Asatryan said.

According to the Minister, today one child of childbearing age in 

Armenia has 1.6 children, meanwhile, it is possible to bring this 

figure from 2 to 2.2 children. Asatryan stated that, unfortunately, 

today there is quite a troubling picture in the villages of Armenia, 

and if earlier there were 2.3 children in the village for one woman 

of childbearing age, today this figure fell to the level of 1.5. 

Meanwhile, in the cities the situation is more encouraging, the 

minister is convinced, since before if one child had 1.6 children, 

today this figure is 1.65 and there is a small positive dynamics. 

Asatryan is convinced that if the appropriate favorable conditions 

are created in the regions-namely, jobs, constant income, then it is 

possible to improve the indicators by 50%. "One of the projects that 

will contribute to the increase in the birth rate is the provision of 

affordable housing for young families, another way, the project of 

repatriation of our citizens to their homeland will ensure the 

necessary population growth," the minister said. But, unfortunately, 

he could not explain how the state intends to return those who have 

already left the republic, in the majority of cases because of social 

problems, citizens.

At the same time, the minister assured that one of the most important 

factors in stimulating the birth rate is the availability of work, 

stable incomes and the possibility of caring for the child. According 

to him, one of the steps in this direction is a bill on subsidizing 

the state money for a nanny, which, if approved by the parliament, 

will enter into force on January 1, 2018 and according to which, the 

state will pay up to 55 a month to those who want to return to work 

thousand AMD, instead of the current 18 thousand. "We will also carry 

out the certification of each region, city, community, which will 

identify the existing problems and outline their possible solutions 

as quickly as possible." We are also concerned about the problem of 

reproduction, as according to the indicators, the birth of the first 

child is acute in Armenia today over many years trying to overcome 

the problem of infertility. If we can solve this issue, we can 

increase the birthrate by several tens of thousands, "the Minister 

said.

Meanwhile, a visit to a number of Vayots Dzor communities showed that 

the most acute problem of these villages today is the lack of normal 

communication. The villagers have to spend for this 3-5 km of the 

road from 40 minutes to one hour. So the people of the community of 

Ger assured that the lack of normal roads creates for them serious 

obstacles in terms of selling their own products, as the cost of 

goods increases several times because of the increase in the cost of 

its delivery to the city. A similar problem was in Zedea's community. 

Another problem voiced by community residents in the Vayots Dzor Marz 

is the issue of preschool education, employment of children, the need 

to go to a neighboring community to high school students to attend 

high school. So Hasmik Ghazaryan, a resident of Zedea community, told 

that she decided to leave the city of Yerevan in the late 80's with 

her parents, because of difficult social conditions. "I got 

acquainted with my future husband here in Zedea and they came here 

with my family from Azerbaijan's Nakhijevan in 1988. You know, then 

there were anti-Armenian sentiments in Azerbaijan, it was not safe to 

stay there, we have three children. The problem of communication is 

acute, as high school students are forced to go to the city of Vayk 

in high school, in the winter it is very difficult, because the roads 

are not enough to sweep, so not every transport is able to get here. 

And on foot to send your child the same unsafe but the children are 

very tired, and the closure of our school, where only 11 students, 

will lead to the extinction of the village, since neither family will 

agree to live where there is not even elementary school, and 

naturally they will prefer to leave, "Hasmik said.

The conversation with the community residents revealed one important 

problem, namely, the lack of public confidence in the authorities, 

the sense of uselessness when a person is left alone with his own 

problems, and until the authorities solve this important problem, 

serious demographic changes are not expected.

Note, recently the Institute of Philosophy, Sociology and Law of the 

National Academy of Sciences with the support of the Armenian 

Sociological Association published a monograph "Migration and 

Depopulation in Armenia." The authors of the monograph are the 

director of the institute, academician Gevorg POGHOSYAN and his 

colleagues Irina ARAKELIAN and Vladimir OSIPOV. In an interview with 

the newspaper "Golos Armenii" Pogosyan noted that the outflow of the 

population from Armenia is an extremely stable process. "According to 

our forecasts, coinciding with the forecasts of the UN, the 

population of Armenia by 2050 under the optimistic scenario will be 

2.7 million people, and under the pessimistic scenario - 1.5 million. 

It is clear that migration as a phenomenon is characteristic of the 

whole world, moreover, the world developed through migration. It's 

another matter when in a given country migration takes a threatening 

character when it comes to the situation that scientists describe as 

depopulation, "the scientist said. As the main causes of 

depopulation, Poghosyan called the fall in the birth rate, the aging 

of the population and the third - its outflow. "In Armenia, over the 

past 25 years, the birth rate has fallen by half. If in the Soviet 

period 75-80 thousand children were born in Armenia every year, now 

this figure is 30-35 thousand. This is a sign of depopulation. The 

second sign is the aging of the population. When the proportion of 

people older than 60 starts to grow, this is the demographic 

indicator of the country is aging. In Armenia, this figure is 12.9%. 

And the third cause of depopulation is the outflow of population. 

Over the last quarter century our population has decreased by 33%, 

"the scientist said.