Armenia has set a one-time payment of 500,000 drams, about $1,370, for every child born in the country on or after September 1, 2026. The amount is the same regardless of birth order, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs said this week, in a change the ministry has tied to a birth rate falling since early 2024.
The flat figure replaces a scale tied to how many children a family already has. Under the rates that apply until August 31, the payment is 300,000 drams, about $820, for a first or second child, 1 million drams, about $2,730, for a third or fourth, and 1.5 million drams, about $4,100, for a fifth or any subsequent child.
For a first or second child the payment therefore rises by 200,000 drams. For a third or fourth it falls by 500,000 drams, and for a fifth or later child by 1 million drams.
The government approved the legislative package at its session on November 20, 2025, and the National Assembly adopted it at an extraordinary session on December 17.
Anahit Galstyan, head of the pension provision and other cash payments department at the ministry, told a press conference in Yerevan on December 1, 2025, while the bill was before parliament, that the decline recorded in 2024 and the figures for the first 9 months of 2025 meant comprehensive measures were needed to encourage births. She said births had held at around 36,000 a year for the seven years from 2018 before dropping.
Armstat figures show the scale of the fall. 36,590 babies were born in 2023, dropping to 33,593 in 2024, a decline of 8 percent, and to 32,042 in 2025, a further decline of 4.6 percent. Armstat has recorded the decline in every reporting period since January 2024.
Labor and Social Affairs Minister Arsen Torosyan presented the same three annual figures to a public council attached to the ministry in July 2026, and said reversing the trend would require changing public attitudes as well as state support programs.
The most recent figures, published for the first half of 2026, show 14,281 births between January and June, down from 14,564 a year earlier. That decline of 1.9 percent is shallower than in either 2024 or 2025, though it is measured against an already reduced base.
Torosyan said the costs a family faces at the birth of a child are the same whatever the child’s birth order. The justification attached to the bill argued that paying different amounts could be read as discrimination against families that limit themselves to 1 or 2 children for reasons outside their control. Torosyan told the cabinet that the money had often not been spent on what it was intended for.
The financial assessment attached to the bill projects that state spending on the one-time payment will fall by roughly 700 million drams, about $1.9 million, in the fourth quarter of 2026 alone.
The same package writes the monthly payment of 50,000 drams, about $137, for a third and each subsequent child into the law on state benefits. Until now it ran as a program established by government decision, covering children born between January 1, 2022 and the end of 2025, and open only to Armenian citizens. It is paid every month until the child turns 6 and now covers children born on or after January 1, 2026.
Torosyan also told the cabinet that roughly 600 million drams a year, about $1.6 million, had been leaving the country through the one-time payment alone. Under the changes he described, a child born abroad to Armenian citizens would need to be registered as a citizen of Armenia within 1 year of birth for the family to receive the money. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the state should not be paying out to people whose lives are not centered in Armenia.
The ministry also set out the rest of what a family can claim after a birth. Maternity benefit is open to both employed and unemployed people. For the unemployed the amount is 172,698 drams, about $470, and for the employed it is calculated under the procedure set in law, based on average monthly salary.
No application or documents are needed for maternity benefit. After the 210th day of pregnancy, a woman can go to a medical institution to open a certificate of incapacity for work and name the bank account for the transfer.
Childcare benefit runs until the child turns 2. A parent not on childcare leave receives 31,600 drams a month, a parent on childcare leave receives 37,500 drams, and a parent on childcare leave living in a rural community receives 69,100 drams, about $190, which is the two amounts combined.
The rural figure requires that the parent has been registered in a rural settlement for at least 1 year without interruption and that the child is also registered in a rural settlement on the day of application. Applications for childcare benefit open once the child reaches 70 days of age.
Families repaying a mortgage can claim the second component of the state housing support program for families with children, a one-time payment applied to the principal of the loan. The application goes to the bank or credit organization that issued the mortgage, before the child turns 1. It reaches up to 500,000 drams for a first or second child and up to 2 million drams, about $5,470, for a third or subsequent child.
Applications for the one-time payment, the childcare benefit and the monthly 50,000-dram benefit can be filed online at e-social.am or at any territorial center of the Unified Social Service. Full terms of the housing program are published on the ministry’s website.
