TEHRAN – The national youth week is being held from January 31 to February 6 across the country with the theme of ‘young Iran, towards a healthier life’.

Each day of the week focuses on a specific topic as follows.

Saturday, January 31, ‘lifestyle modification for the young people’

Sunday, February 1, ‘preventing leading cause of death in young people’

Monday, February 2, ‘the role of marriage in health’

Tuesday, February 3, ‘healthy young person with healthy eating’

Wednesday, February 4, ‘happier life with self-care’

Thursday, February 5, ‘honoring the youth’

Friday, February 6, ‘overcoming population crisis with the help of well-informed youth’

During the week, different programs will be held focusing on the importance of various issues such as the youth population, mental health, communicable and noncommunicable diseases, nutrition, tobacco control, mothers and newborns health, the health ministry's website quoted Alireza Raeisi, the deputy health minister, as saying.

Health campaigns are providing comprehensive health services to everyone, particularly young people, including medical consultations and self-care training, promoting a healthy lifestyle and ways to prevent dangerous behaviours and road accidents.

They offer free advice on healthy eating, proper physical activities, youth population, timely marriage, childbearing, and illicit drugs use.

Youth population key priority for health ministry

According to Raeisi, the youth population is the top priority of the health ministry and the administration.

In today’s world, where the competition among countries relies more than ever on the productivity of knowledge and human resources, no factor other than the youth population can contribute to a hopeful future for any nation, IRNA quoted Raeisi as saying. The official made the remarks on the occasion of the national population week in May 2025.

Iran is in a population window of opportunity – a period when a large proportion of the population is of working age. Known as a unique opportunity for economic, social, and cultural growth, it requires comprehensive polices in the fields of health, employment, education, welfare, and family.

However, ignoring this opportunity may lead the country to face numerous demographic challenges, such as an aging population, a shrinking workforce, and disruptions in the intergenerational balance in the not-so-distant future.

The official went on to elaborate on services being provided by the health ministry; these include providing free educational courses to young couples, supporting over 300 non-governmental anti-abortion centers, training of trainers to develop a health-oriented family culture, and establishing a digital birth registration system in hospitals.

Free natural childbirth services to promote safe and physiological childbirth, extensive insurance coverage (up to 90%) for infertility treatment, free pregnancy consultation, and education programs are among other measures taken by the health ministry in line with the 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.

MT/MG