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Trends and Differentials in Moslem fertility

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

Mostafa H. Nagi
Affiliation:
Sociology Department, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, USA

Summary

This paper examines data on fertility levels in 33 Moslem countries between 1960 and 1980. Fertility measures include crude birth rate, total fertility rate and age-specific birth rate, and the percentage change in them between 1960 and 1980.

The analysis focuses on: (1) the current status of Moslem fertility in comparison to non-Moslem countries in the same region; (2) the emerging fertility differentials among Moslem countries; (3) how much of the recent fertility declines in some Moslem countries is associated with modernization variables and with family planning efforts.

The results indicate that: (1) Moslem fertility remains universally high and is generally higher than in non-Moslem countries in the same region; (2) very few Moslem countries have succeeded in bringing down their level of fertility to justify a search for the predictors of Moslem fertility levels; (3) in spite of a sufficient range of variations in the economic and social correlates of fertility, the corresponding fertility variables in these countries do not suggest that the reproductive behaviour of Moslem women has reacted to such variations; (4) efforts directed towards stronger family planning programmes are clearly related to fertility decline.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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