Taken from: Women’s Health in Israel 1999: A Data Book, Hadassah and Israel Women’s Network, 1999.
The population of Israel is unique among the developed countries of the world in that its fertility rates are well above the level necessary for its replacement. In 1995, the total fertility rate (the average number of expected births in a woman’s lifetime) was 2.9, as compared with the average total fertility rate in Europe, which has fallen below 2. In Israel, total fertility rates are higher among Moslem women (4.6) and Druze women (3.4) than among Jewish and Christian women (2.6); however, Israeli Jews still have higher fertility levels than all economically developed nations, with total fertility rates approximately twice as high in Israel as in western Jewish Diaspora. It is estimated that the relatively high fertility of Israeli Jews is at least partly the result of very high fertility rates in the religious community.
The past 30 years have seen a decline in total fertility rates in all population groups, with the most dramatic decrease in the non-Jewish population, and a much more moderate decline in the Jewish population. In the mid-1960’s, the total fertility rate of Moslem women was among the highest in the world (above 9), and by 1995 it was only half as high: 4.6. The main reason for this precipitous drop was found to be the increase in contraceptive use among Moslem women, which in turn was determined for the most part by the woman’s age (birth cohort) and education level. A fertility survey on a representative sample of 500 Moslem women found that among women of later birth cohorts, and those with higher educational levels, both desired and actual fertility levels were lower.
Among Jewish women, the factor most strongly associated with both desired and actual fertility was found to be the extent of religious observance. In a large-scale, national fertility study of over 2,700 women aged 22-39, women who defined themselves as “religious” had a larger average number of children (3.4) than “non-religious” women (2.2). Very similar findings were reported in a national survey conducted 10 years later, in 1998, among women aged 21-44. In the 1998 survey, parallel trends in fertility were also found among older women (aged 45-74). In both age groups, the average number of children was directly related to extent of religious observance, as was the case in the 1987 survey.
During the past 10 years, fertility rates have stabilized in all population groups except for the Druze, whose total fertility rates continue to decline.
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