ArmInfo. By July 1, 2019, the population of Armenia amounted to 2.961.6 million people, having decreased by 0.1% or 3.7 thousand people since the beginning of the year, and by 0.3% or 8.2 thousand compared to the same period last year. This is evidenced by the data of the Statistical Committee of the Republic of Armenia.
According to the source, as of the reporting date, the urban population was 1.892 million people, which is 64% of the total number of citizens, and 1.068.8 million people lived in villages or 36%. The number of urban residents decreased in y-o-y terms by 0.1%, and rural - by 0.6%. At the same time, the population of Yerevan over the same period increased by 0.3%, amounting to 1.081.3 million people, i.e. 36.5% of the total population of the country are concentrated in the capital.
The most densely populated are the two regions nearest to the capital - this is Armavir (263.8 thousand people) and Ararat (256.6 thousand people). They are followed by: Kotayk (251.3 thousand), Shirak (232.5 thousand), Gegharkunik (228 thousand) and Lori (214.8 thousand). As of the reporting date, 137.4 thousand, 125.1 thousand and 122 thousand people, respectively, lived in Syunik, Aragatsotn and Tavush, and the most sparsely populated region of the country is Vayots Dzor, where only 48.8 thousand people live.
According to the RA Statistical committee, in the first six months of 2019, 29,453 cases of population migration were registered in Armenia, which is 14.4% more than the indicator of the previous year. Of this number, 10 557 people moved to the country from abroad. (with a y-o-y growth of 19.9%), and 13,262 people emigrated abroad (with y-o-y growth of 16.2%). Meanwhile, intra-republican migration amounted to 16,191 cases, with a y-o-y growth of 13%. As a result in the first six months of 2019 the negative migration balance of Armenia amounted to 2 705 people (with a y-o-y growth of 3.5%).
In Armenia, in the first half of 2019, 16 111 children were born, against 16 261 children over the same period of the last year. Thus, according to Statistical Committee of the Republic of Armenia, the birth rate in the country in y-o-y terms decreased by 0.9%, and in the two-year context - by 6.2%. According to the results of the first half of the year, the birth rate per 1000 inhabitants amounted to 11 per mil, with an annual invariance and 11.6 per mil - in the first half of 2017. According to statistics, 13,790 people died in Armenia during the reporting period, with an annual growth of 4.3%, while in the two-year context, on the contrary, it decreased by 4.9%. The mortality rate in the country was 9.4 ppm, compared to 9 ppm in the first half of 2018 and 9.8 ppm for the same period of 2017. The absolute value of the natural population growth was 2,321 people, which is 23.7% less than the indicator a year ago, and 13.1% in two years. The coefficient of natural population growth was only 1.6 ppm, compared to 2 ppm in the first half of 2018. and 1.8 ppm in the first half of 2017. To recall, in January this year, the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan announced that the migration outflow of the population, which had continued since independence, was finally replaced by an influx. According to him, from January 1 to December 25, 2018, the number of arrivals in Armenia exceeded the number of those who left it by 20.7 thousand people, as a result of which the balance of migration exchange became positive for the first time in many years. And this despite the fact that in 2017 emigration exceeded immigration, and the "net" migration outflow of the population amounted to 25.9 thousand people. Compared to previous years, the trend really looks unusual and needs to be explained.
It should be noted that on June 23, the Economy Times reported that according to a study by the Gaidar Institute of Economic Policy, in the first months (January-April) of 2019, the number of migrants from Armenia to Russia increased sharply, reaching 12.8 thousand people, against 4.9 thousand people in 2018.
The Migration Service of Armenia expressed doubt about the reliability of the data published by the Institute on the sharp increase in the number of Armenian migrants in the Russian Federation, having published its statistics. According to official data, the rate of migration from Armenia has noticeably decreased. According to the migration service of Armenia, compared with the first half of 2015, in the same period of 2019, the rate of migration from Armenia decreased 32-fold.
The infographic provided by the government on its official Facebook page indicates that in 2015 the negative migration balance was minus 75 464 people, in 2016 - 66 629, in 2017 - 37 625, in 2018 - 6110, and in the first six months of 2019 - 2334.
In October 2018, the head of the migration service of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Development Armen Ghazaryan said that for the first half of 2018, the migration balance amounted to minus 5204 people versus minus 30853 people for the same period of 2017.