TEHRAN – The third National Youth Population Award was held today with the presence of President Masoud Pezeshkian.

The event underscored the crucial role of neighborhoods and mosques in removing childbearing barriers and addressing family problems in cities.

The performance of the related organizations was assessed based on two main criteria, including their legal and internal duties, and the best ideas, photos, and movies that focused on families and childbearing were chosen.

Youth population law

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.

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.

However, it 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, IRIB quoted Mohammad-Javad Mahmoudi, an official with the Civil Registration Organization, as saying.

“At best, Iran’s population with a total fertility rate of 2.5 will reach 102,890,000 by the next seven years,” Mahmoudi said.

An important factor contributing to lower birth rates in the country is the cost of living. Indeed, due to the high inflation rate and the expensive real estate sector, many families are choosing to have a smaller family size. The current one-child trend is prevalent in many young Iranian families, many of whom also have to support their aging parents.

Due to the financial constraints, late marriage is another new trend. Delayed marriage, along with extended intervals between childbirth, is another factor.

MT/MG