Society
Iran's population faces steep decline as regime prioritizes foreign agenda
A third of Iranians live in poverty, and birthrates are falling, as the regime continues to prioritize its regional expansion over domestic welfare.
![A woman and her children cross a pedestrian bridge in Tehran on December 4. [Atta Kenare/AFP]](/gc3/images/2024/12/14/48442-Tehran-woman-children-370_237.webp)
By Fariba Raad |
Iran faces a demographic crisis that could see its population of 87 million plummet by half to 42 million by century's end, as the Islamic Republic prioritizes its foreign agenda over domestic welfare.
The regime's population policies have shifted dramatically over the decades.
During the Iran-Iraq war, authorities encouraged a baby boom to boost workforce numbers and military recruitment.
After the conflict ended, the government reversed course, promoting two-child families.
By 2012, facing negative population growth, Iranian leader Ali Khamenei urged couples to have more children -- an appeal that has failed amid the crushing economic conditions that much of the population face.
"Drastic changes in population policy have harmed the regime" and the credibility of its leadership, ideals, values and slogans, Rasanah International Institute for Iranian Studies Mohammed al-Sulami wrote for Arab News.
"The regime's population policy has always shifted based on the regime's and senior officials' interests and desires."
The economic reality on the ground tells a stark story.
A recent Iranian Parliament Research Center report shows poverty rates reached 30.1% in 2023, with about one-third of Iranians unable to meet basic needs.
These rates have remained largely unchanged for five years despite government welfare policies, according to Iran Wire.
Yet the Iranian regime remains one of the world's top military spenders, and in November announced it was increasing its military budget by "200%," with a significant percentage going to its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Misplaced priorities
With official inflation exceeding 40% in 2023 and record housing and food costs, many middle-class couples cannot afford to have children.
"My husband and I have been married for 10 years and yearn to have children," said a 34-year-old Tehran schoolteacher who asked that her name be withheld.
"We both work hard, but we can barely support ourselves and pay the rent, let alone manage the expenses of having a child," she said.
The teacher said she commutes 30km daily to the rented suburban flat she shares with her husband, also a teacher.
"This is a government that only follows its ideology," London-based political analyst Cyrus Nabili told Pishtaz. "It has no interest, no concern, no attachment and no sense of responsibility or accountability to its people."
"Society has lost its traditional structure that for millennia stood on the pillars of family and children," he added. "Injustice and corruption have become a norm where its traditional values are lost."
Yet Tehran continues to prioritize regional military expansion and proxy forces across the Middle East, while on the domestic front, economic hardships remain largely unaddressed.
"As long as the government's policies remain unchanged, the decline in all aspects of life in Iran will continue," Nabili said.
Thanks
I wish the respected officials would think a little more about economic stability and social justice.
As long as clergies are the leaders of the nations, the nation must fast because of hunger. They call it political fasting... Then, under the pretext of making money and earning lawful, they plunder people's wealth. They take one fifth or khums of the most money. They do not take zakat because it is less... and laugh at people. This way the cleric's stomach swells like a barrel of tar. These thieves devour the forbidden khums.
At a time when inflation is becoming increasingly corrosive, what benefits are in giving birth to a child whose future is uncertain? Poverty is the greatest obstacle to having children.
Until the day when young people are unemployed and under sanctions, who dares to have children, with what income?
Yes, 80 percent of people cannot afford buying meat, and people are now having a single meal at a time when one dollar is equal to 80000 Tomans. It seems that the interests and benefits of the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations is in keeping quite.
Hello, why is our country facing a gas shortage problem for domestic consumption, factories, and forces? Why did the Deputy Minister of Oil and the Managing Director of the National Gas Company recently say that Iran will send 50 million cubic meters of gas daily from refineries to Baghdad and Basra to supply gas to its power plants for 5 years? Shouldn't the esteemed National Inspection Directorate and the Judiciary intervene in this matter as a case of government corruption?!
Hello, they have taken people’s ability to continue away from them, 10 Tomans a month for rent.. family costs are skyrocketing, everything is backward. May God curse them, they are taking away the rights of the Iranian people.
Hello, it is true that the people of Iran have some management problems, but they are loyal to their system and hopeful for the future. It is you who are always talking about collapse because you serve the imperialists.
We love Iran and our country, and we stood by it until the end. Go spread your net somewhere else, you God-unaware infidels.
Most of the people of Iran are struggling in poverty and misery. Many of the poor people in society do not have a Justice Shares while the wealthy ruling class has received Justice Shares before the deprived. Wasn't the revolution the time to address the deprived? So why did the oppressed become more deprived and the wealthy become more prosperous? Now a new, prosperous ruling class has emerged.
Neither East nor the West, only the Islamic Republic of Iran. Why doesn't BBC International mention the dishonest aid the United Nations and the United States provide to the Zionist regime? It just likes to smear Iran with fake news.
It's a lie.
Don't paint a bleak picture. No place in the world is a paradise.
Yes, you are right, thank you.
We will soon witness the collapse of the system in the worst possible way, especially with the expulsion of Afghan citizens who have entered our country illegally. Their anger at the government and the anger of our own people will cause a civil war with the division of the enemies against the government.
You would really like to see the collapse of the regime
May the hypocrite, who cannot see this regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Death to the hypocrite infidels.
By your definition, about 90% of the nation are hypocrites! Wake up from your sleep of ignorance before the nation wakes you up. Bye.
Ok
Exactly
The end of it can be seen.