Nepal Launches Population Policy 2025 to Address Demographic Shifts

The government introduced the National Population Policy 2025 at an event held on Friday in Kathmandu.

According to the National Population Census 2021, 34 out of Nepal’s 77 districts—including many in the Himalayan region—and 319 local areas are seeing a drop in population numbers.

The country’s overall population growth rate has slowed to 0.92 percent, down from 1.35 percent in 2011.

Nepal’s average number of children per woman is now 1.93, which is lower than the replacement level of 2.1 needed to maintain the population size.

Older people aged 60 and above now make up 10.21 percent of the population, while people in the working-age group (15 to 59 years) account for 61.9 percent. There is also a gender imbalance at birth, with 114 boys born for every 100 girls.

The new policy plans to deal with these changes by introducing programs that support balanced population growth, better reproductive health, and gender equality.