The origins of the Armenian people are incomprehensible. According to ancient Armenian writers, their people descend from Noah's son Japheth. A branch of the Indo-Europeans, the Armenians are linked ethnically to the Phrygians, who migrated from Thrace in southeastern Europe into Asia Minor late in the second millennium B.C., and to the residents of the kingdom of Urartu, with whom the Armenians came into contact around 800 B.C.

In the 19th century, the Armenians were the most urban of the Transcaucasian peoples, but they were also the most dispersed. A merchant middle class was the most powerful social group among the Armenians, although the church and secular intellectuals also provided leadership. Armenians pioneered exploitation of the oil deposits in and around Baku, and the economic growth of the ancient Georgian capital, Tbilisi, was largely an enterprise of Armenian merchants and small industrialists.

In 1991 Armenia's population density, 112 persons per square kilometer, was second only to that of Moldovaamong the Soviet republics. About 65 % of the population lives in urban areas and 35 % in rural areas. In 1990 Armenia's capital, Erevan, had a population of 1.3 million, or about 39 % of the population of the republic; the second largest city, Gyumri, had 124,000 residents.The population of Armenia is 3,400,000 2002 estimate, giving the nation’s land area a population density of 113 persons per sq km. Armenia is highly urbanized, with 70 % of all residents living in cities or towns.