After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iran’s population reached 55 million people as the government encouraged its citizens to have larger families. However, from the 1980s to 2012, Iran witnessed its fastest and largest fertility drop ever. This was largely due to Iran’s former supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini who feared “the economy could not support a growing population after Iran’s war with Iraq.” Currently, if it continues on this trend, Iran will become the oldest country in the world by 2050 with a third of the population over 60 years old. This trend is due to government-imposed family planning strategies and economic issues which have led to a lower number of marriages. 

Family Planning Implemented 50 Years Ago

Before the Islamic Revolution, the government pushed for families to increase the number of children they had. This led to an average of seven children per family, but after the 1980s and the post-Islamic revolution  increased family planning policies, this dropped to what is now an average of 1.7 children. This was due to fears that the economy would not be able to handle the rapidly growing population after the Islamic Revolution. The government implemented a nationwide campaign with more sex education, free condoms, cheap contraceptives and slogans such as “fewer kids, better life,” along with the advice to wait three to five years to have more children.  People suddenly had very easy access to sexual sterilization procedures in public hospitals at affordable prices and now women had more time to go to university, even outnumbering men there. Consequently, women had more time to focus on their own interests while men did not have to support quite as large a family. 

Economic Issues Led to Fewer Marriages

Iran’s war with Iraq led to issues that were largely due to both countries taking out the other’s oil industry. Research shows that “the loss of oil exporting capacity in both countries was by far the most devastating economic blow of the war.” Other economic hardships arose from decreased amounts of imports and several cities were bombed, damaging major infrastructures and impacting normal life for citizens. These factors led Iran’s annual population growth rate to drop below 1% as of this year, while just two years ago the rate was 1.4%. About a decade ago, Iran’s government reversed course and began encouraging families after realizing they were headed toward  a population decline. Economic challenges have led to fewer marriages, with the rate dropping 40% in a decade. In response, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei offered incentives such as increasing paid maternity leave for men and women and in 2015, two laws were passed restricting contraceptives and sterilization procedures. 

 What Now?

With the daunting current situation, Iran has focused on almost doubling its population to 150 million. Additionally, “vasectomies will no longer be carried out by state-run medical centers and contraceptives will only be offered to women who are at risk.” Of course, the option is still available at private hospitals, but the easy access the country has had to procedures and contraceptives has come to an end. This has met with some resistance from human rights groups such as Amnesty International, which stated that “women are not baby-making machines.” Ultimately, though, the previous family planning policies have started to reverse and action has been taken to increase Iran’s annual population growth rate. The government’s focus now is to change its headlines from a rapidly aging country to a young, fast-growing one.