The Iranian president’s Special Inspector, Hassan Darvishian, said on a provincial tour on Wednesday that population growth is the ‘gravest’ concern currently plaguing the country.
He said, “We are caught in a very critical population trap and if we cannot overcome this trap in the next five years, we will have a very deplorable situation in the future.”
Darvishian admitted that Iran has an imbalance of gas and water consumption, but argued that the crisis of population ageing dwarfs all other crises.
Experts have issued stark warnings that over 30% of the population in Iran, or 35 million, will be categorized as elderly by 2050.
They attribute the critically low fertility rates to social and economic reasons.
