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Armenia

The population of Armenia in 2005 was just over 3 million, with a negative annual population growth rate (meaning more deaths than births occur per year) of minus 0.6 percent. The population is primarily urban (64 percent). The 1915–23 genocide killed approximately half of the Armenians living in Asia and drove the remainder from their homes. They settled in concentrated diasporas around the world where maintaining an Armenian identity through the birth of children and grandchildren was a priority. Today, there are about 9 million Armenians around the world.

Motherhood and National Identity

Motherhood is central to the national identity of Armenia: the personification of the country is Mother Armenia, which symbolizes the ideals of strength and peace, honors important women in Armenian history, and recalls the important status granted to older women in the Armenian family. The most famous exemplar of Mother Armenia is a monumental statue in the national capital of Yerevan: it portrays a woman holding a sword, standing on a pedestal designed to resemble a traditional Armenian church (Armenia is predominantly Christian), which contains a museum to Armenia's war dead.

However, women in Armenia suffer from suboptimal health care due to national poverty and the disruption of economic and social life since Armenia became an independent country after separating from the Soviet Union in 1991. Although Armenia has enjoyed strong economic growth recently, this has not always translated into improved health services. Fifty-one percent of the population live below the poverty line, and Armenia as a country ranks 83rd out of 177 on the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Human Development Index.

Literacy is high (over 99 percent) for both men and women, although girls reflect a decreasing enrollment in schools as the grade level rises: they are 95 percent of all enrollees in primary school, versus 90 percent in secondary school. In 2004, Armenia spent 5.6 percent of its Gross Domestic Product on health care expenditures, for an average per-capita expenditure (in U.S. dollars) of $321; most of the expenditure (78.7 percent) was paid out of pocket by private households, while 23.1 percent was paid by the public sector.

Vital Statistics

Life expectancy for males is 70 years and for women is almost 76 years. In 2004 there were 37,520 live births, for a crude birth rate of 11.15 per 1,000 population: 15 percent of births were to women in the 15- to 19-year-old age group.

Despite the fact that almost all births (99.5 percent) are attended by skilled medical personnel and 82 percent of women received at least one prenatal care visit, the maternal death rate in Armenia has been rising since 2002, and in 2004 was twice that of the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region: 37.3 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. The lifetime chance of a woman dying from maternal causes is 1 per 1,200. The perinatal mortality rate per 1,000 births in 2004 was 14.4, about 1.5 times the European Region average. Only 22 percent of Armenian women reported using contraception in 2000, while abortion remains common: in 2004, Armenian women had 283.7 abortions per 1,000 live births.

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