AZE.US
Rising housing costs, limited salaries and changing attitudes toward family life are prompting more young people in Azerbaijan to delay marriage. Experts disagree, however, over whether economic pressure or broader social change is the dominant factor.
As AZE.US reports, Ruslan Atakishiyev, chairman of the Center for the Study of Economic Resources, told MediaNews.az that young couples face their heaviest expenses at a time when they usually have few or no personal savings.
Starting a household, finding a place to live and preparing for the birth of a child all require substantial resources. At the same time, young adults are often still trying to establish themselves in the labor market and may lack a stable income.
The financial burden also frequently falls primarily on men. Even when both partners are employed, a woman may temporarily stop working or experience a decline in income after taking maternity leave.
“At this stage, young families need greater support from their parents,” Atakishiyev said. “They must save money, build household reserves and manage expenses carefully. This is the only way to gradually create a stable family budget.”
Attorney Akram Hasanov argued that low incomes and the lack of housing cannot fully explain why Azerbaijanis are marrying later. He noted that unemployment and financial hardship were even more severe during the final years of the Soviet Union and the early 1990s, yet people continued to marry.
In Hasanov’s view, some young adults lack the ability or willingness to plan a household budget and limit their consumption. Social media and pressure from their peers encourage them to seek the same products and lifestyle enjoyed by wealthier groups, making saving more difficult.
He also linked later marriages to changing social norms and the growing acceptance of relationships outside marriage. According to Hasanov, formal marriage is no longer viewed by some young people as a necessary condition for living together, allowing them to postpone the decision until they want children.
Economist Khalid Karimli rejected the broader tendency to blame young people for the decline in marriages. He described the new generation as educated, informed and generally capable of making rational decisions.
Karimli said the main obstacle is the limited availability of well-paid jobs in Azerbaijan.
“Suppose a young person works as a journalist and earns 700–800 manats, or even 1,000 manats,” he said. “What can they do with that income? Apartment prices in Baku start at around 150,000 manats, while monthly rent costs 700–800 manats. No matter how rational you are, achieving financial stability under such conditions is extremely difficult.”
Those figures are equivalent to a monthly income of about $412–$588, rent of approximately $412–$471 and a starting apartment price of roughly $88,200.
Karimli said the government and economic institutions should focus on creating better-paid jobs, increasing household incomes and making residential construction easier so that housing becomes more accessible to young families.
He acknowledged that some young adults take on unnecessary debt to purchase luxury brands or expensive goods that do not match their income. Such behavior is often driven by attempts to imitate the consumption habits of wealthier groups.
However, Karimli estimated that poor financial decisions account for no more than 10% of the problem.
“The remaining 90% depends on improving the country’s socioeconomic conditions,” he said.
AZE.US