Armenia Population 2023 (Live)

Armenia has experienced population decline since the USSR was broken up, but the decline leveled out between 2008-2010. Based on the medium variant of the UN projections, the population will be nearly 3 million in 2020.

Armenia Population Growth

The annual growth rate of the population in Armenia has been wavering on both sides of zero since the turn of the century, gaining numbers just to lose some a few years later leading to little overall change. As of 2019, the population was close to a standstill growing at just 0.09% a year. Net migration is relatively low, yet negative, and the largest contributing factor to the low amount has been the below-average birth rate of 1.61 children being born to the average Armenian woman. The birth rate was even lower in the 1990s, meaning that there are not many people around child-bearing age around at present. That in combination with socio-economic factors have not inspired people to start large families.

Armenia Population Projections

The decrease in the annual growth rate of Armenia is expected to continue in the coming years, beginning to see a decrease in numbers as soon as the year 2024. Current projections go out to the year 2050 and believe that the net migration will regularly be at least -5,000 annually and the birth rate will remain below the worldwide average, staying close to 1.51, which is not conducive to growth. If these factors remain as expected, the annual growth rate should get down to -0.47% by 2050, and the population of Armenia will be roughly 2,938,679 in 2020, 2,907,463 in 2030, 2,818,399 in 2040 and 2,600,184 by 2050.

The small landlocked nation of Armenia is located along the boundary between Europe and Asia but is technically an Asian nation that shares its border with Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran, and Turkey. Located in the Southern Caucasus Mountains between the Black and Caspian Seas, Armenia covers 11,484 square miles (29,743 square kilometers) of area, which ranks 141st in the world in terms of size. However, Armenia is the second-most densely populated nation of the former Soviet republics. The population in 2019 was 2,937,026 which gives it a population density of 256 people per square mile (99 people per square kilometer), which ranks 84th in the world in this regard.

Roughly 63% of the people living in Armenia reside in or around a major metropolitan area. Armenia’s largest city, Yerevan, has a population of approximately 1.075 million people - roughly one-third of the entire population. Yerevan is one of the world’s oldest, continually inhabited cities in existence to this day. Yerevan is also the nation's capital and is home to most of the country's major industries and international headquarters. This area of Armenia is where it is speculated that Noah’s Ark would have landed, by all research and accounts. Yerevan is by far the largest city in Armenia, with the second-largest city of Gyumri having a population of 117,000. Other notable cities with populations less than 100,000 include Vanadzor, Vagharshapat (Etchmiadzin), Abovyan, and Kapan. Armenia is urbanizing at a rate of 0.5% but has seen a population decrease by about 6% over the most recent 4 years.

Armenia Demographics

The ethnic tapestry of Armenia is 98% ethnic Armenians, while the rest are primarily Yazidis, with some Russian ethnicity present. Accordingly, the two official languages in Armenia are Armenian, and Kurdish, which is spoken by the Yezidi minority. The life expectancy in Armenia is higher than most other Soviet Republics with men expected to live to 71.6 and women to 78.3 years old. The median age in Armenia is 35.6 years old. Armenia has a large diaspora, with about 8 million Armenians living throughout the world. This is much larger than the current 3 million population of Armenia itself. The largest communities outside of Armenia are in Russia, Iran, France, the U.S., Canada, Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere. The northern portion of the country is more densely populated than the south.

Armenia Religion, Economy and Politics

Religious devotion in Armenia is traditionally Christian. Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as a national religion, and antiquity shows this occurred around 301 A.D. Over 93% of the current populous claims to be part of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Catholicism exists in Armenia, as well as Sunni Islam, both practiced by a small fraction of Armenian residents.

In the years since Armenia's independence, they have become increasingly self-reliant for natural resources and mining for copper, zinc, gold, and lead is the most significant portion of the economy. Most of their fuel, however, still comes from Russia. Trade in Armenia is somewhat limited since two of its neighboring countries, Azerbaijan and Turkey, have had their trade borders closed since 1991 and 1993, respectively, leaving just Jordan and Georgia as their most accessible trade partners. This limited trade in addition to the pervasiveness of monopolies throughout many industries has led Armenia to be particularly susceptible to the volatilities of the global market.

Armenia Population History

600,000 - 1,500,000 Armenians were either killed or deported from Western Armenia, their homeland, to the area that is now Syria between the years 1915-1917, at which time the Armenian part of the Ottoman Empire came under the control of the Russian army before being incorporated into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922. Under Stalin, the economy flourished and there was much industrial development, but the people suffered greatly through the 1930s.

In 1988, Armenians began campaigning for the Nagorno-Karabakh region of neighboring Azerbaijan to be incorporated with the rest of Armenia. Later that year an earthquake killed 25,000 and left hundreds of thousands of people without homes. Shortly after the earthquake, tensions rose over the Nagorno-Karabakh region and thousands were forced to leave their homes. Armenia joined the United Nations in 1992 and became a full member of the Council of Europe in 2002.