There were 9,569 births registered in Armenia during the first quarter of 2012, a drop of 5.7% over the same period last year.

Karineh Kouyoumjyan, who heads the census and demographics unit at the Department of Statistics, told reporters today that the number of births surpasses the number of deaths by a factor of 1.2, thus ensuring a natural increase of 1,616.

She added that this also constitutes a drop over last year’s number of 2,360.

Kouyoumjyan noted that the death rate is slowly increasing while the number of births has been sliding over the past 5-7 years.

The official minced no words when she posited that such trends, coupled with the numbers leaving the country, would lead to a drastic decrease in Armenia’s overall population.