Armenians go, foreigners come: Migration infographic for recent years

Following April 2018, the government has often announced that emigration has turned into immigration due to the revolution. One such claim even found a place in Prime Minister Pashinyan’s famous “100 facts about New Armenia” series.

The Fact Investigation Platform studied the data of the Statistical Committee on border crossings in Armenia in the last 10 years to see what the picture looks like now.

The data include entries and exits of citizens holding passports of the Republic of Armenia, as well as overall data, and the respective balance.

Indeed, starting from 2018, there was a positive balance in terms of entries and exits through border checkpoints. And last year was a record in that respect. The number of arrivals to Armenia exceeded the number of departures by 38,732. However, if we take the movement of citizens with passports of the Republic of Armenia, the picture will be different. The number of citizens who left the country always exceeded that of the ones who returned.

The year 2020 is an exception, because due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the countries closed their borders and it became almost impossible for Armenian citizens to leave Armenia, while there were no restrictions for those returning to Armenia. Due to this, in 2020, the difference between the arrivals and departures of Armenian citizens amounted to 42,786 people.

However, there was a record high number of departures of citizens of the Republic of Armenia in 2021. It was a record for the last 10 years. The difference between departing and arriving citizens of Armenia was -73,571 people. And the difference in total border crossings was -43,874.

The number of Armenian citizens who left the country in 2022 is quite significant: -27,941 people. Instead, there was record positive balance of border crossings (38,732).

Thus, it should be noted that in the years following the Velvet Revolution, the rate of emigration of citizens of the Republic of Armenia really decreased, but following COVID-19 and the war, the number of citizens leaving the country increased again.

Sevada Ghazaryan