5% of Population Emigrated from Armenia Over Past 3 Years

Nearly 150 000 people – or 5% of the country’s population – have emigrated from Armenia over the past 3 years, Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper reports. According to the official data published by Armenia’s National Statistical Service on Tuesday, the difference between the number of those who left and those who arrived in the country in 2016 amounted to 54 031.

“In other words, more than 54 000 people permanently left Armenia in the past year. This, in essence, is the net emigration figure for 2016. For comparison, in 2015, the number of emigrants was 47 676 people, and in 2014 – 47 074 people.

“The 2016 rise in the emigration rates could be linked to the [early-April escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict], and the summer events surrounding the armed takeover of the headquarters of a police patrol service regiment in Yerevan,” the paper suggests.