In a move designed to reverse the country’s declining birth rate, the Armenian government will pay a lump sum birth allowance of AMD 500,000 (US$1,308) to families for each child starting on September 1, 2026.

The current birth allowance scheme is AMD 300,000 for the first and second child, AMD one million for the third and fourth child, and AMD 1.5 million for the fifth and subsequent children.

Armenian Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Arsen Torosyan believes the new flat rate of AMD 500,000 is more targeted and equitable. Torosyan says families were having five or more children simply for the cash payment and then faced difficulties to adequately provide for them.

Armenia’s birth rate decreased by 8% and its death rate increased by 5.2% in 2024 compared to 2023 according to the country’s National Statistical Service (NSS). 33,648 babies were born in 2024, compared to 36,590 in 2023.

Armenia has long considered its negative demographic trends a threat and past administrations have introduced various plans to reverse the decline.

Former President Serzh Sargsyan, in 2017, boasted that Armenia’s population would reach four million by 2040. In 2020, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan suggested that the country’s population could reach five million by 2050.

These optimistic numbers fly in the face of United Nations’ estimates that Armenia’s population is projected to decline to 2.7 million by 2050 and 1.8 million in 2100.

Furthermore, whether one-time birth allowance payments, on their own, have positively impacted on the country’s birth rate remains questionable. Other factors including cost of living, political stability and employment prospects must surely be considered.