Azerbaijan is on the verge of a demographic crisis.
Modern.az reports that the lowest birth rate recorded in the country since gaining independence in 1991 was observed in 2025.
Although the full final figures for 2025 have not yet been released, official statistics and expert forecasts reveal the seriousness of the situation. Thus, in the first 10 months of 2025, 80,802 children were born in the country. By the end of the year, this figure is expected to reach approximately 95,000, which will go down in history as the lowest birth rate in our independence history.
Thus, in 2024, 102,310 children were born in the country, in 2023, 112,620, and in 2022, 122,846. Even in 2020, when COVID-19 was rampant and certain restrictions were imposed on wedding ceremonies, 126,571 births were recorded, and in 2021, 112,284 births.
The highest number of children in our independence history were born in 1991 (190,353), 1992 (181,364), and 2011 (176,072).
This statistic shows that there is an almost twofold decrease between the birth rate in 1991 and the forecast for 2025. This trend may lead to challenges such as a decrease in the labor force in the future labor market and an aging population.
The reasons for the decrease in the number of children born in Azerbaijan include young people postponing marriage to later ages due to career and economic independence, rising living costs and housing provisions limiting the number of children in families, the spread of urban lifestyles to regions and women's active participation in the workforce rendering the large family model obsolete, and the numerically small generation currently in reproductive age (those born in the late 1990s - early 2000s) - directly impacting the total number of births.
Kərim RUTULLU
