TEHRAN – The Vice-Presidency for Science and Technology and Knowledge-based Economy, in cooperation with the Innovation and Prosperity Fund, will support the implementation of projects in the family and youth population sectors.

To this end, the Vice-Presidency has announced the second call to organize and fund innovations in line with achieving the country’s demographic goals, IRNA reported.

It focuses on three main areas namely infertility treatment, childbearing, maternal and child health, as well as seven key specialized areas including cell therapy, gene therapy, tissue engineering (advanced treatments and novel approaches to improve fertility and treat genetic disorders), assisted reproductive technologies (ART) and Artificial Intelligence, nanotechnologies to improve diagnosis, health monitoring, and assisted reproductive treatments. 

It also includes drugs and diagnostic kits for the development of strategic medicines and the manufacture of diagnostic kits; photonics, laser, and optogenetics technologies, with a focus on low-power lasers, adaptive optics, and quantum photonics; and medicinal plants based on Persian medicine to develop products to increase fertility.

In the research sector, social research on field surveys of the causes of declining fertility in various provinces of the country, empowering women and mothers, supporting creative centers in the field of family, raising awareness, developing culture and preventive measures in infertility, and expanding search and production infrastructure for comprehensive centers are of particular importance.

‘Aging rate in Iran exceeds global average’

In January, the head of Welfare Organization said the rate of aging in Iran is growing faster than the global average, so that the country will be among the oldest countries in the world in 25 years.

Based on the World Health Organization (WHO) age classification in 2025, the elderly population constitutes those aged 60 and older. Accordingly, 14 percent of the country’s population is old now, ISNA quoted Seyed Javad Hosseini as saying.

A population is considered young when seven percent of people are 60 or older; when seven to 14 percent of people are over 60, the country is said to be aging. Countries with 14 to 21 percent and 21 to 27 percent of people aged 60 or over are aged and super-aged, respectively, the official said.

In the Iranian year 1395 (2016 – 2017), only 9.5 percent of the population was aged over 60, and the global average aging rate was about 12 to 13 percent. In the Iranian year 1415 (2036 – 2037), the figure will rise to 15 percent in Iran and 16.5 percent in the world. However, in 1430 (2051 – 2052), the figure will reach 31 percent in Iran, and 21.5 percent in the world, the official noted.

The life expectancy in Iran has increased, but the birth rate has lowered, Hosseini stressed.

According to the latest census, the number of aged citizens in the country is growing by 3.62 percent, which is five times faster than the total population growth rate, which is 1.24 percent. For the time being, elderly women account for 52.3 percent of the total population, outnumbering men (47.7 percent), ISNA quoted Saber Jabbari, an official with the health ministry, as saying.

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. It is one of the most important challenges facing the country.

“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 the last two years, the fertility rate has stabilized around 1.6, which has intensified concerns over the decreasing trend in population growth in the coming years, and the probability of turning Iran into one of the oldest countries in the world, the official highlighted.

MT/MG