The percentage of people over the age of 60 will constitute 30% of Iran’s population by the year 2050, Mohammad Tabatabaei, a health official with the Iran University of Medical Sciences, stated on Tuesday.

“By 2050, the country’s demographic window of opportunity will close; therefore, considering the age of fertility, we have less than eight years to solve this crisis,” Tabatabaei was quoted as saying by ISNA.

He said that the first three years of the eight were key as the number of fertile women continued to drop, warning that less than 60% of the population will be of working age by 2050 if birth rates kept declining.

“The fertility rate is 1.65 children per woman right now. In our country, the fertility rate has been lower than the replacement rate since the year 2000,” Tabatabaei stated.

Moreover, the population growth rate has sharply dropped in a span of five years, from 1.2 in 2016 to 0.6 in 2021, “in other words, the country’s population growth rate has halved in five years.” Tabatabaei added.

According to him, 30 years of policies that aimed at curbing the population have influenced the public’s point of view on having children and careful planning and awareness campaigns could help alter the trend.

Another aspect of the decline in birth rates was infertility, the official said. There are about 3.5 million infertile couples throughout the country, with 88,000 added to the figure every passing year.

“The costs for treating infertility are high especially if there is a need for in vitro fertilization (IVF) or other invasive procedures,” he said.

Authorities have tried to alleviate concerns over the cost of treatment by having insurance policies cover about 90% of expenses in governmental centers.

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