Full story
Population push from Khamenei
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei urged Iranian authorities to take “proper measures aimed at increasing the population,” linking population growth to “national power.”
“Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei has urged the Iranian authorities to take proper measures aimed at increasing the population”
Mehr News Agency said Khamenei responded to “a letter from the population-related authorities” and highlighted the need to increase the birth rate, stressing that growth would bring “increased power and civilization of Islamic Iran.”
VOA Farsi reported that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a message read at the National Population Headquarters meeting, described Iran’s aging population as “horrific” and said the effort to increase the population is one of the “most essential duties” of officials and the people.
The same VOA Farsi report said Ebrahim Raisi instructed all institutions to take actions toward implementing the “Population and Family Development Law,” and emphasized providing banking facilities to help with childbearing.
IRGC and officials warn
The BBC reported that Lieutenant General Hossein Salami, the IRGC commander-in-chief, warned that “If the population growth rate does not rise exponentially, the society will age; an aging society is doomed to extinction.”
In the same BBC account, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi said, “Twenty percent of couples in the country are infertile, the main reason being the rising age at marriage.”
RFE/RL said Vice President JD Vance told reporters at the White House on May 19 that the United States would not go for a deal that allows Iran to have nuclear weapon, while still pursuing a diplomatic deal.
RFE/RL also quoted Trump’s timeline for possible action, saying he gave Iran “two or three days” and added “Maybe Friday, Saturday, Sunday, maybe early next week,” as he tied the limit to the goal that “we can't let them [Iran] have nuclear weapons.”
Policy stakes and measures
DW reported that Khamenei described the effort to increase the birth rate and rejuvenate the human workforce as one of the “most essential duties of officials and the people,” and said his message urged attention to public-space cultural promotion and to the health system.
“described the effort to increase the birth rate and rejuvenate the human workforce as one of the most essential duties of officials and the people”
DW said Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi told the National Population Task Force meeting that all agencies are responsible for implementing the Population Law and the Promotion of the Family, and that providing bank facilities for childbearing should be implemented “as soon as possible.”
ANF said Khamenei linked Iran’s status as an “influential power” to population growth and urged “a culture of procreation” to encourage family formation.
In the same ANF account, it said Iran’s Deputy Health Minister for Health Affairs, Ali Reza Raisi, warned that the number of births annually has fallen to “fewer than 900,000,” while Iran’s population stood at about “86.5 million as of March 2026” and births in the previous Iranian year were “892,268.”
