After Two Years of Recession and Pandemic, Lebanon's Population Growth is Shrinking Fast

On Tuesday, the statistics-focused Lebanese International Center for Information declared that the economic and financial crisis that has ravaged Lebanon since the end of 2019, in addition to Covid-19, have had serious repercussions on the country’s demography.

Comparing figures from 2018 (when the conditions were comparatively stable) and 2021, the Center’s latest report revealed that marriage contracts had declined by 7.2 percent or 2,626 separate cases, divorce contracts by three percent or 244 divorces, and births by about 32 percent, a total drop of 29,827.

The report also showed a staggering decline in population growth. The overall population had grown by 67,360 in 2018, but this had shrunk to 28,405 in 2021. The Center described this decline as “drastic and dangerous”, especially when considering the significant increase in the number of immigrants, around 80,000 last year, in the same period.

The recorded number of deaths in the same period rose by 9,128, or 35.6 percent. The majority of these deaths, around 7,600, were attributed by the government to coronavirus.