TEHRAN – The national population week will be observed from May 14 to 20 under the theme ‘children, life assets’.

The days of the week have been named as follows: Wednesday, May 14, ‘Father, mother, good sense of life’; Thursday, May 15, ‘Motherhood, elixir of youth’; Friday, May 16, ‘Desiring a child’; Saturday, May 17, ‘My lonely child’; Sunday, May 18, ‘I want to stay alive’; Monday, May 19, ‘My life in old age’; Tuesday, May 20, ‘Child-friendly society.’

Youth population law stabilizes total fertility rate

Enacting the youth population law has stabilized the total fertility rate, slightly increasing the general fertility index over the past two years.

After experiencing seven years of decline by about 20 percent, the fertility rate is now stabilized at around 1.6, IRNA reported. 

The total fertility rate has experienced a sharp decline since the Iranian calendar year 1394 (2015-2016), as the number of births reached 1.057 million in 1402 (2023-2024) from 1.570 million in 1394.  However, since the Iranian calendar year 1401 (March 2022–March 2023), the downward trend in fertility came to a halt.

The total fertility rate has lowered to 1.6 children per woman from about 2 children per woman.

According to Civil Registration Organization’s report, the total fertility rate in Iranian years 1396 (2017-2018), 1397 (2018-2019), 1398 (2019-2020), 1399 (2020-2021), and 1400 (2021-2022) were 2,09, 1.95, 1,74, 1.65, 1.61 per each woman, respectively.

Despite offering incentives to encourage childbearing in line with the youth population law, the desired growth in the youth population has not been accomplished yet.

At best, Iran’s population with a total fertility rate of 2.5 will reach 102,890,000 by the next seven years, IRIB quoted Mohammad-Javad Mahmoudi, an official with the Civil Registration Organization, as saying.

In May 2024, Hasan Farshidi, an official with the health ministry, said that two years after the implementation of the law on supporting families and the youth, investigations have shown that the health ministry has played a central role in the implementation of the law.

“Since the implementation of the law, the number of births among mothers aged 20 to 24 has notably increased,” the official added.

The rate of mothers giving birth to three children increased from 16 percent in the Iranian year 1398 (March 2019-March 2020) to 18.97 percent in 1402 (March 2023–March 2024) , and even the fourth childbirth increased from 5 percent to about 7 percent, Farshidi stated.

According to Saber Jabbari, an official with the health ministry, men and women aged above 60 constitute some 11.5 percent of Iran’s population.

For the time being, elderly women account for 52.3 percent of the total population, outnumbering men (47.7 percent), ISNA reported.

The aging of individuals signifies increased life expectancy. However, population aging demonstrates a shift in the distribution of a country’s population towards older ages, which is not a favorable indicator. In other words, the number of young people in society declines in comparison to the elderly population. It is one of the most important challenges facing the country.

MT/MG