Demographics of Armenia

The Demographics of Armenia is about the demographic features of the population of Armenia, including population growth, population density, ethnicity, education level, health, economic status, religious affiliations, and other aspects of the population.

Population of Armenia 1950-2010.
Data NSSRA [1] ; Number of inhabitants in thousands.

Demographics trends

After registering a steady increase all through the Soviet period, the population of Armenia declined from 3.604 million in 1991 to 3.211 million in 2003. The latest estimate is 3.251 million on January 1, 2010.

Armenia is the only republic of the former Soviet Union that has a nearly-homogeneous population. It is also the second-most densely populated post-Soviet state after Moldova. Ethnic minorities include Russians, Assyrians, Ukrainians, Yazidi Kurds, Iranians, Greeks, Georgians, and Belarusians. There are also smaller communities of Vlachs, Mordvins, Ossetians, Udis, and Tats. Minorites of Poles and Caucasus Germans also exist though they are heavily Russified.^[1]

Most Armenians are Christian, primarily of Oriental Orthodox rite. Armenia is considered the first nation to adopt Christianity, which was first preached in Armenia by two Apostles of Jesus, St. Bartholomew and St. Thaddeus in the 1st century. The Armenian Apostolic Church can trace its roots back to the 3rd and 4th centuries. The country formally adopted the Christian faith in 301 A.D. Over 90% of Armenians belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church, a form of Oriental (Non-Chalcedonianism) Orthodoxy, which is a very ritualistic, conservative church, roughly comparable to the Coptic and Syrian churches. Armenia also has a population of Catholics and evangelical Protestants.

There has been a problem of population decline due to elevated levels of emigration after the break-up of the USSR. The rates of emigration and population decline, however, have decreased drastically in the recent years, and a moderate influx of Armenians returning to Armenia have been the main reasons for the trend, which is expected to continue. In fact Armenia is expected to resume its positive population growth by 2010. According to Birthright Armenia website, a census done in 2004 shows Armenia's population to be 2.7 million.^[2]

Vital statistics^[3][4][5]

	Average population (x 1000)	Live births1	Deaths1	Natural change	Crude birth rate (per 1000)	Crude death rate (per 1000)	Natural change (per 1000)
1950	1 354	43 500	11 500	32 000	32.1	8.5	23.6
1951	1 383	49 900	12 400	37 500	36.1	9.0	27.1
1952	1 420	54 100	12 900	41 200	38.1	9.1	29.0
1953	1 463	51 400	14 000	37 400	35.1	9.6	25.6
1954	1 511	58 300	12 400	45 900	38.6	8.2	30.4
1955	1 564	59 400	13 800	45 600	38.0	8.8	29.2
1956	1 619	62 300	12 300	50 000	38.5	7.6	30.9
1957	1 678	67 100	14 100	53 000	40.0	8.4	31.6
1958	1 739	71 500	14 100	57 400	41.1	8.1	33.0
1959	1 802	72 400	14 100	58 300	40.2	7.8	32.4
1960	1 867	74 825	12 675	62 150	40.1	6.8	33.3
1961	1 942	72 377	12 496	59 881	37.3	6.4	30.8
1962	2 005	69 505	13 297	56 208	34.7	6.6	28.0
1963	2 064	67 382	12 046	55 336	32.6	5.8	26.8
1964	2 133	64 454	12 415	52 039	30.2	5.8	24.4
1965	2 205	62 969	12 582	50 387	28.6	5.7	22.9
1966	2 273	61 594	12 445	49 149	27.1	5.5	21.6
1967	2 337	57 031	12 622	44 409	24.4	5.4	19.0
1968	2 401	57 503	12 231	45 272	23.9	5.1	18.9
1969	2 462	56 203	12 782	43 421	22.8	5.2	17.6
1970	2 518	55 694	12 844	42 850	22.1	5.1	17.0
1971	2 580	58 188	12 518	45 670	22.6	4.9	17.7
1972	2 644	59 313	13 730	45 583	22.4	5.2	17.2
1973	2 708	59 593	14 102	45 491	22.0	5.2	16.8
1974	2 770	60 419	14 276	46 143	21.8	5.2	16.7
1975	2 826	62 866	15 498	47 368	22.2	5.5	16.8
1976	2 883	65 065	15 688	49 377	22.6	5.4	17.1
1977	2 943	65 830	15 813	50 017	22.4	5.4	17.0
1978	3 001	66 698	16 465	50 233	22.2	5.5	16.7
1979	3 051	69 786	17 125	52 661	22.9	5.6	17.3
1980	3 096	70 324	17 124	53 200	22.7	5.5	17.2
1981	3 144	73 682	16 659	57 023	23.4	5.3	18.1
1982	3 194	74 225	17 469	56 756	23.2	5.5	17.8
1983	3 243	76 436	18 369	58 067	23.6	5.7	17.9
1984	3 292	79 767	19 043	60 724	24.2	5.8	18.4
1985	3 339	80 306	19 581	60 725	24.1	5.9	18.2
1986	3 387	81 192	19 410	61 782	24.0	5.7	18.2
1987	3 435	78 492	19 727	58 765	22.9	5.7	17.1
1988	3 453	74 707	35 5672	39 140	21.6	10.3	11.3
1989	3 482	75 250	20 853	54 397	21.6	6.0	15.6
1990	3 545	79 882	21 993	57 889	22.5	6.2	16.3
1991	3 604	77 825	23 425	54 400	21.6	6.5	15.1
1992	3 549	70 581	25 824	44 757	19.9	7.3	12.6
1993	3 410	59 041	27 500	31 541	17.3	8.1	9.2
1994	3 309	51 143	24 648	26 495	15.5	7.4	8.0
1995	3 255	48 960	24 842	24 118	15.0	7.6	7.4
1996	3 247	48 134	24 936	23 198	14.8	7.7	7.1
1997	3 242	43 929	23 985	19 944	13.5	7.4	6.2
1998	3 235	39 366	23 210	16 156	12.2	7.2	5.0
1999	3 230	36 502	24 087	12 415	11.3	7.5	3.8
2000	3 221	34 276	24 025	10 251	10.6	7.5	3.2
2001	3 214	32 065	24 003	8 062	10.0	7.5	2.5
2002	3 212	32 229	25 554	6 675	10.0	8.0	2.1
2003	3 211	35 793	26 014	9 779	11.1	8.1	3.0
2004	3 214	37 520	25 679	11 841	11.7	8.0	3.7
2005	3 218	37 499	26 379	11 120	11.7	8.2	3.5
2006	3 221	37 639	27 202	10 437	11.7	8.4	3.2
2007	3 226	40 105	26 830	13 275	12.4	8.3	4.1
2008	3 234	41 185	27 412	13 773	12.7	8.5	4.3
2009	3 244	44 466	27 528	16 938	13.7	8.5	5.2
2010

¹ the numbers of life births and deaths until 1959 were calculated from the birth rate and death rate, respectively

² the high number of deaths in 1988 is related to the Spitak earthquake

Ethnic groups

Main article: Censuses of Armenia

Population of Armenia according to ethnic group 1926–2001

Ethnic group	census 19261		census 19392		census 19593		census 19704		census 19795		census 19896		census 2001
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Armenians	743,571	84.8	1,061,997	82.8	1,551,610	88.0	2,208,327	88.6	2,724,975	89.7	3,083,616	93.3	3,145,354	97.9
Yazidis	12,237	1.4	20,481	1.6	25,627	1.5	37,486	1.5	50,822	1.7	56,127	1.7	40,620	1.3
Kurds	3,025	0.3											1,519	0.0
Russians	19,548	2.2	51,464	4.0	56,464	3.2	66,108	2.7	70,336	2.3	51,555	1.6	14,660	0.5
Assyrians	2,215	0.3	3,280	0.3	4,326	0.2	5,544	0.2	6,183	0.2	5,963	0.2	3,409	0.1
Ukrainians	2,286	0.3	5,496	0.4	5,593	0.3	8,390	0.3	8,900	0.3	8,341	0.3	1,633	0.1
Greeks	2,980	0.3	4,181	0.3	4,976	0.3	5,690	0.2	5,653	0.2	4,650	0.1	1,176	0.0
Jews	335	0.0	512	0.0	1,024	0.1	1,047	0.0	959	0.0	720	0.0	600	0.0
Azeris	76,870	8.7	130,896	10.2	107,748	6.1	148,189	5.9	160,841	5.3	84,860	2.6
Others	17,683	2.0	4,031	0.3	5,667	0.3	11,092	0.4	8,590	0.3	8,944	0.3	4,640	0.1
Total	881,290		1,282,338		1,763,048		2,491,873		3,037,259		3,304,776		3,213,011
1 Source: [2]. 2 Source: [3]. 3 Source: [4]. 4 Source: [5]. 5 Source: [6]. 6 Source: [7].

Languages

Armenian 97.7%, Yazidi 1%, Russian 0.9%, and other 0.4% (2001 census).

Armenian is the only official language. Russian is widely used, especially in education^[6]. 94% of adult Armenians considers that it's important their children learn Russian.^[7]

Armenia is an observant member of the La Francophonie due to a small percentage of people studying enough French.

The largest communities of the ethnic Armenian diaspora are fluent in English.

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

Population pyramid

Data from CIA World Factbook, unless indicated otherwise.

Age structure

0-14 years: 18.2% (male 289,119/female 252,150)

15-64 years: 71.1% (male 986,764/female 1,123,708)

65 years and over: 10.6% (male 122,996/female 192,267) (2009 est.)

Median age

Total: 31.5 years

Male: 28.8 years

Female: 34.4 years (2009 est.)

Urbanization

Urbanization population: 64% of population (2008)

Rate of urbanization: -0.3% annual rate of change (2005-10 est.)

Sex ratio

At birth: 1.15 male(s)/female

Under 15 years: 1.14 male(s)/female

15-64 years: 0.88 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0.65 male(s)/female

Total population: 0.89 male(s)/female (2008 est.)

Infant mortality rate

Total: 20.21 deaths/1,000 live births

country comparison to the world: 106

Male: 24.97 deaths/1,000 live births

Female: 14.77 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)

Life expectancy at birth

Total population: 72.68 years

country comparison to the world: 116

Male: 69.06 years

Female: 76.81 years (2009 est.)

Total fertility rate

1.36 children born/woman (2009 est.)

country comparison to the world: 201

HIV/AIDS

Adult prevalence rate: 0.1% (2007 est.)

country comparison to the world: 114

People living with HIV/AIDS: 2,400 (2007 est.)

country comparison to the world: 135

Deaths: less than 200 (2007 est.)

country comparison to the world: 104

Nationality

Noun: Armenian(s)

Adjective: Armenian

Religions

Main article: Religion in Armenia

Armenian Apostolic 94.7%, other Christian 4% (mostly Armenian Catholic and Russian Orthodox), Yazidi (monotheist with elements of nature worship) 1.3%, and small Muslim and Jewish populations.

Literacy

Definition: age 15 and over can read and write

Total population: 99.4%

Male: 99.7%

Female: 99.2% (2001 census)

Education expenditures

3.2% of GDP (2001)

country comparison to the world: 139

See also

• Censuses of Armenia
• Ethnic minorities in Armenia
• Assyrians in Armenia
• Greeks in Armenia
• Yazidis in Armenia
• Lom people

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook document "2006 edition".

1. ^ Garnik Asatryan and Victoria Arakelova, The Ethnic Minorities of Armenia, Routledge, part of the OSCE, 2002
2. ^ Emigration Issues in Armenia
3. ^ B.R. Mitchell. International historical statistics 1750-2005: Africa. Asia and Oceania
4. ^ http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/dyb/dyb2.htm#2001 United nations. Demographic Yearbooks
5. ^ National Statistical Service of the Republic of Armenia
6. ^ "Problems of Bilingualism in Armenia" (PDF). http://www.lingref.com/isb/4/092ISB4.PDF. Retrieved 2010-01-25.  : "In 1999 the decision of the Government of Armenia that the Russian language would be used in the system of education and cultural and social life of the Republic of Armenia was approved and adopted. This decision contained the concept about a place and role of the Russian language in the system of education."
7. ^ http://www.gallup.com/poll/109228/russian-language-enjoying-boost-postsoviet-states.aspx

External links

• Population cartogram of Armenia