Iran: the oldest population in region in two decades

Iranians will be the most elderly population in the region 20 years according to Mohsen Fatih, vice-president of the Centre of Studies at the Faculty of Medicine of Tehran University. Further, sociologist Shahla Kazempour explained that the proportion of elderly people will rise to 30 per cent in the next 20-30 years, Anadolu Agency reported.

Speaking at the same seminar, sociologist Shahla Kazempour said that people under 15 years of age constituted 46 percent, while those over 60 made up 3 percent of the total population, after the Iranian revolution in 1979.

She added that the percentage of those under 15 has fallen to 23 per cent, while the percentage of the elderly has risen to 9 per cent.

In a speech he delivered in a seminar in Tehran on the occasion of the International Day of the Elderly last month, Iranian sociologist Dr. Alireza Sharifi Yazdi said that women’s greater involvement in social life, economic crises and early-age marriage have led to a decline of birth rates in Iran and consequently a lower young population.

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