Demographics of Armenia
Armenia population pyramid in 2020
Population	3,046,100 (7 November 2018)[1]
Density	102.73/km2
Growth rate	0.27/1,000 population (2016 est.)
Birth rate	2.97 births/1,000 population (2014 est.)
Death rate	1.76 deaths/1,000 population (2014 est.)
Nationality
Nationality	Armenian(s)
Major ethnic	Armenian
Minor ethnic	Russian, Yazidis, Kurds, Assyrians
Language
Official	Armenian
Spoken	Armenian, English, Kurdish, Russian, French and others

After registering steady increases during the Soviet period, the population of Armenia declined from its peak value of 3.633 million in 1992 to 2.986 million in 2017.^[1]

Whilst the country's population increased steadily during the Soviet Union as a result of periods of repatriation and low emigration rates, it has declined in recent times due to the exodus of peoples following the Soviet break-up. The rates of emigration and population decline, however, have decreased in recent years, and there has been a moderate influx of Armenians returning to Armenia.

Historical statistics

Census population and average annual growth rate

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1831	161,747	—
1873	496,140	+2.70%
1886	635,833	+1.93%
1897	797,853	+2.08%
1904	877,322	+1.37%
1914	1,014,255	+1.46%
1916	993,782	−1.01%
1919	961,677	−1.09%
1920	720,000	−25.13%
1922	782,052	+4.22%
1926	878,929	+2.96%
1931	1,050,633	+3.63%
1939	1,282,338	+2.52%
1959	1,763,048	+1.60%
1970	2,491,873	+3.20%
1979	3,037,259	+2.22%
1989	3,304,776	+0.85%
2001	3,213,011	−0.23%
2011	3,018,854	−0.62%
2022	2,932,731	−0.26%
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
For 1831–1931[2] [better source needed] [3][4][a] For 1920[5] For 1926[6] For 1939–1989[7][b] For 2001[9] For 2011[10]

Citing Armenia's conquest and occupation by the Seljuks (11th century) and Mongols (13th–15th centuries), historians Edmund Herzig and Marina Kurkchiyan write "the combination of progressive Turkish (and Kurdish) immigration and Armenian decline, through massacre, famine and emigration, changed the demographic balance in a way that Arab immigration had never done".^[11]

As a result of "deliberate relocation policies employed by both the Ottomans and Safavids" during the Ottoman–Safavid War, there was a large-scale displacement of Armenians; Armenians also emigrated "to escape the insecurity and hardship of life in war-torn Armenia". Whilst Shah Abbas I relocated Armenians to Isfahan and "Armenian colonies in other parts of Iran" in 1604–1605, "the Ottomans also removed Armenian artisans to their capital".^[12]

Following the Russian annexation, 45,000 Armenians from Persia and 100,000 from the Ottoman Empire migrated to Eastern Armenia, with another 25,000 migrating following the 1878 Russo-Turkish war. As a result of the repatriation, Armenians had regained a majority in their homeland "for the first time in several hundred years".^[13] As a result of persecution and massacres in the Ottoman Empire, some 100,000 Armenians immigrated to Eastern Armenia between 1870 and 1910.^[14] The areas with Armenian-majorities would later "form the nucleus in the twentieth century of an independent Armenian state".^[13]

Historian Sen Hovhannisian writes that during the 80 years of peace during which Eastern Armenia was part of Russia, there was "unprecedented" population growth: it tripled from 161,700 to 496,100 between 1831–1873, and doubled in the following forty years until it reached 1,000,100 in 1913. The population between 1831 and 1913 increased 6.18 times, yielding an average annual growth rate of 10,200 people. Following the outbreak of World War I, the population, which was 1,014,300 in 1914, fell by 20,500 in 1916 due to the Christian population being drafted. As a result of "wars and civil clashes, hunger and diseases" of 1918–1920, 432,000 people (35.8 percent of the population) were "exterminated".^[15]

Upon its sovietisation, the territory of modern-day Armenia had a population of some 720,000, a decline of nearly 30 percent—"almost half" consisted of refugees.^[5] American historian Richard Pipes states that "according to Soviet estimates, the Armenian population of Transcaucasia declined between 1914 and 1920 by one half million: 200,000 in consequence of Turkish, and, presumably, Communist, massacres, and 300,000 from other causes, mostly famine and disease".^[16]

The drastic decline of the population was addressed by the Soviet Armenian government by repatriating displaced Azerbaijanis to districts where they had formed a significant population in Armenia. The Azerbaijani population of Armenia which numbered some 10,000 in 1920 (attributed to the ARF government's expulsion of at least 200,000 Turks and Kurds) rose to 72,596 in 1922 as a result of the return of 60,000 refugees.^{[17] [better source needed]} In addition to this, the Soviet government welcomed 44,000 Armenian refugees from Greece, Iraq, Turkey, and elsewhere throughout the 1920s and 1930s.^[18] In 1946–1948, 86,000 Armenians were repatriated to Soviet Armenia to offset the country's wartime losses.^[19] At the same time, by agreement of Armenian and Azerbaijani Soviet leaderships, tens of thousands of Azerbaijanis in Armenia were resettled to Azerbaijan to make room for the repatriates.^[20]

Global map of changes in population growth rates
Population growth rates in 2010–2015 vs. 2005–2010 A study revealed that population growth rates were more positive in Armenia, compared to surrounding countries in the specified period.

Human development

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According to the 2018 HDI statistical update (with data for 2017), compared to all its neighbouring countries Armenia has:^[21]

• the lowest coefficient of human inequality,
• the lowest gender inequality (ranked 55th on Gender Inequality Index),
• highest percentage of men and highest percentage of women with at least some secondary education,
• highest share of seats in parliament held by women,
• highest share of women who reported to feel safe,
• highest GDP growth rate.

Since 1990, Armenia recorded steady growth of average annual HDI scores in every reported period (1990–2000, 2000–2010, 2010–2017).^[21]

According to the 2016 Sustainable Society Index, Armenia has a higher rank of Human Wellbeing than all its neighbours. At the same time its Economic Wellbeing rank is below neighbouring countries.^[22]

The 2011 census counted 539,394 persons (19.4 percent of the population above 6 years of age) with higher professional education.^[23]

Vital statistics

Life expectancy

According to the 2018 HDI statistical update, compared to all its neighbouring countries Armenia has the highest health expenditures as percentage of its GDP and the highest healthy life expectancy at birth.^[21]

In 2016, the average life expectancy at birth for males was 71.6 years and for females was 78.3 years, with the average at 75.0 years.^[1]

After a setback during 1986–1996, mostly due to the Spitak earthquake, and the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, Armenia regained its position and was consistently among the top three former Soviet republics during 1997–2016, topping the list in 2007.^[24]

During the Soviet period, life expectancy was traditionally high in Armenia and topped all other republics of the USSR, and most other countries in Eastern Europe between 1978–1980.^[25][26]

Source: UN^[27]

Reproduction indicators

In 2016, natural increase of population comprised 12,366 persons and the crude rate of natural increase reached 4.1%, per 1000 population, decreasing by 0.4 percent compared to the previous year.^[1]

After double-digit crude natural increase rates between 1982–1992, rates did not exceed 5.5 after 1998. At a regional level, slightly better rates were recorded in the capital Yerevan, where the value of 5.5 is consistently being surpassed since 2009. Particularly weak is natural increase in Tavush and Syunik provinces, not much better off are Lori and Vayots Dzor provinces.^[1]

Fertility Rate (TFR) (Wanted Fertility Rate) and CBR (Crude Birth Rate):^[28]

Armenia's Total Fertility Rate at 1.6 was lowest in the Caucasus region in 2017.^[29] TFR is expected to stay at 1.6 between 2015–2020, less from 1.7 in years 2010–2015.^[21]

The mean age of mothers at birth was 26.8 years and at first birth it was 24.7 years in 2016.^[1] Adolescent birth rate, as well as, share of women married aged 18 was lowest in Armenia compared to its neighbouring countries.^[21]

In 2016, infant mortality rate (in the first year of their life) was 8.6%, per 1,000 live births.^[1]

A study revealed that population growth rate changes were more favourable in Armenia than in its surrounding countries between 2005–2015.

Structure of the population

The median age in 2020 was 36.6 years (male: 35.1, female: 38.3).^[30]

36.3 percent of women who gave birth in 2016 had higher education.^[1]

Population by Sex and Age Group (Census 12.10.2011):^[31]

Population Estimates by Sex and Age Group (01.VII.2019):^[32]