Monday, November 30 2015 11:43

 According to a UN study, in Armenia women want to bear sons six times as much as daughters, Mr. Garik Hayrapetyan, UNFPA Armenia Assistant Representative, has told ArmInfo. 

He says that in Armenia the key reason why people want to bear boys is that they want to secure their future generation and expect their sons to help their elderly parents. In addition, many people prefer to transfer their property to their sons, not daughters, who marry and create their own families.     

As a result, the growing number of selective abortions causes big concerns: in Armenia the boys/girls ratio is 114 to 100, with the standard being 102-106 to 100. So, Armenia has one of the highest sex imbalance indicators after China (118 to 100) and Azerbaijan (116 to 100).      

Experts say that after 1993 the surplus number of boys among the new-born babies is about 50,000. Such sex imbalance is fraught with serious problems. "For instance, if the number of men is higher in the society than the number of women, the criminal landscape is changing for the worse," says Hayrapetyan.        

Hayrapetyan stresses the need to take steps at the legislative level and to improve the doctors' skills. "I should say that the Armenian Government has taken the given problem seriously. I hope the republic will register some positive results within the two-three years," the expert says.     

To note, according to the UNFPA study findings, Armenia may lose 93,000 potential mothers by 2060 if the trend of selective abortions continues. The population of Armenia may shrink by 80,000 people by that time.   

In 2014 versus 2013, the birth rate in Armenia rose by 3.4% to 14.3 permille (13.8 permille in 2013). 
53.2% (22,965) of the babies born in 2014 were boys, with 46.8% (20,218) being girls.