The number of marriage loan payments in the first half of this year and compared to the same period last year shows a growth of about 40 percent, IRNA quoted Mehdi Mottaqifar as saying on Sunday.

During the aforementioned period, the total number of people who registered for marriage loans was 977,071 people, of which 486,399 people have been paid marriage loans, he stated.

He went on to say that some 1,731,041 people have registered to receive childbearing loans, of which only 383,377 loans have been granted.

In the specialized field of marriage and family, there are 430 counseling centers in the country. In addition, using the capacity of expert counselors, we also set up marriage and family counseling offices in cities with a high rate of divorce, he explained.

Marriage three times divorce

During the first three months of the current [Iranian calendar] year which began on March 21, some 142,298 marriages and 44,159 divorces were registered across the country.

Of the total number of marriages registered in the first three months of this year, the most are related to the provinces of Tehran with 16,225 cases, Khorasan Razavi with 12,401 cases, and Khuzestan with 10,939 cases.

Challenges caused by divorce and marriage rate

Official statistics of the country and the forecast of demographic experts indicate that if the trend of decreasing fertility rate, increasing single-child families, declining marriage rate, and increasing divorce rate continues for the next 30 years, old age will prevail in the country and one in three people will be over 60-years-old, which will be the beginning of a crisis.

“Several socioeconomic factors, including urbanization, education, financial issues, first marriage age, increasing divorce rate, as well as increased access to family planning services along with increased time gap between the firstborn and marriage, lead to decreased fertility rate.

But the problem in Iran is the pace of decline, which is very high. So, we have to look for the reason that increased the pace,” she explained.

The Majlis (Iranian Parliament) approved on March 16 to implement a population growth and family support plan for 7 years to change the declining trend of childbearing.

The plan stipulates health insurance for infertile couples, providing services and facilities to working women, providing health and nutrition support packages to mothers and children, educational opportunities for student mothers, providing livelihood support to families, and ongoing medical services to pregnant women.

As the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has emphasized that the national development plans should focus on population growth, and on the other hand, the Expediency Council seeks a one-year extension of the Sixth Five-Year National Development Plan (2016-2021), it was decided to implement the plan for 7 years.

The downward trend of population growth gradually decreases and reaches zero, then becomes negative. Negative population growth causes the population to disappear in the long run.

It is estimated that population growth will reach zero in 2040 and then becomes negative, so the biggest concern is that Iran’s population will age in the coming years, fertility will decline, and the population of youth will decrease.

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The conscious choice of spouse and partner is the main goal of counseling training for young people on the verge of marriage, he stated.

Providing family education, Islamic-Iranian lifestyle, characteristics of the ideal spouse, correct choice and familiarity with the criteria for choosing a spouse are among the training provided to these groups, he explained.

Some 1,300 counselors provide marriage education in these workshops nationwide, he stated.

During the last year, about 58,000 people under the Foundation’s coverage received pre-marital education, Jafari said, adding, more than 27,000 clients also benefited from counseling services for young couples.

Mohammad Mehdi Tondgooyan, deputy minister of sports and youth, has said that the marriage rate downward trend after 17 years, despite the prevalence of the coronavirus and its economic consequences, has risen and Iran experienced a five percent growth in marriage.
The marriage rate in Iran has increased by 5 percent over the past [Iranian calendar] year (March 2020-March 2021).

Demographic issue

The fertility rate in Iran has been declining over the past eight years, the lowest of which was related to the past [Iranian calendar] year (March 2019- March 2020) with a birth rate of 1.2, according to the data published by the Statistics Center.

The number of births in the whole country faced a downtrend over the past three years, as registered births decreased to 1,196,135 over the past [Iranian calendar] year; a difference of roughly over 120,000 to 16,000 per year.

Population decline comes up with consequences, including the reduction of the working population (aged 15 to 64) and the aging population in the coming decades.

Some 14 policies to support childbearing and the family were announced by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in [the Iranian calendar year] 1393 (March 2014-March 2015) when he stressed that social, cultural, and economic development should be done in accordance with these general policies to support families.

The policies address the need to increase the population and the various dimensions of it, including childbearing, facilitating marriage and strengthening the family, reproductive health, promoting the Iranian-Islamic lifestyle, empowering young people, honoring the elderly, and the environment, which can lead to an increase in the quantity and quality of the population if it is timely and continuous implemented.

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Despite the pandemic that was expected to lead the marriage rate to a downward trend, the reduction of marriage costs has caused the rate to grow by 5 percent last year, while, divorces have decreased by 4 percent, she explained, ISNA reported on Friday.

Marriage threefold of divorce 

Based on the latest statistics, some 307,349 marriages and 99,679 divorces were registered in the country during the first seven months of the past [Iranian calendar] year.

In December 2020, Seifollah Aboutorabi, the National Organization for Civil Registration spokesman said that during the first 9 months of the past [Iranian calendar] year, some 853,084 births were registered across the country, as well as 397,501 deaths during the same period.

Population growth policies

Official statistics of the country and the forecast of demographic experts indicate that if the trend of decreasing fertility rate, increasing single-child families, and decreasing marriage rate continues for the next 30 years, old age will prevail in the country and one in three people will be over 60-years-old, which will be the beginning of a crisis.

Some 14 policies to support childbearing and the family were announced by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in [the Iranian calendar year] 1393 (March 2014-March 2015) when he stressed that social, cultural, and economic development should be done in accordance with these general policies to support families.

The policies address the need to increase the population and the various dimensions of it, including childbearing, facilitating marriage and strengthening the family, reproductive health, promoting the Iranian-Islamic lifestyle, empowering young people, honoring the elderly, and the environment, which can lead to an increase in the quantity and quality of the population if it is timely and continuous implemented.

Kimia Mohammadzadeh, a member of the working group for women and family at the independent association of the University of Tehran, told Mehr news agency that thus, instead of considering family support and youth marriage, policymakers adopt policies that lead to delays in marriage and family formation.

Childbearing, which should be a public issue, became an inefficient policy due to lack of follow-up, she said.

Most recently, the Majlis (Iranian parliament) has developed a support plan to encourage families to increase childbearing.

The plan stipulates health insurance for infertile couples, providing services and facilities to working women, providing health and nutrition support packages to mothers and children, educational opportunities for student mothers, providing livelihood support to families, and ongoing medical services to pregnant women.

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