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Source: http://www.hoover.org/publications/policy-review/article/118261
Fertility Decline in the Muslim World
(Hoover Institution-Stanford University) - Nicholas Eberstadt and Apoorva Shah - Important new demographic realities reflect today's life patterns within the Arab world. Throughout the worldwide Muslim community, fertility levels are falling dramatically for countries and subnational populations. At the same time, the use of modern contraceptives remains much lower among Muslim-majority populations than among non-Muslim societies of similar income level. Iran has registered one of the most rapid and pronounced fertility declines ever recorded. By 2000, the fertility rate for the country had dropped to 2.0, below the replacement level of 2.1. Tehran and Isfahan reported fertility levels lower than any state in the U.S. Nicholas Eberstadt holds the Henry Wendt chair in political economy at the American Enterprise Institute, where Apoorva Shah served as research fellow.