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The Riddle of Modern Israel's Remarkably High Birth Rates
(Jewish Chronicle-UK) Paul Morland - Israel has all the features normally associated with ultra-low fertility rates: high levels of education among women, high levels of urbanization, high levels of income. Yet from the 1990s Israel's fertility rate started to rise. Today it is slightly above three children per woman, compared to 1.6 and 1.7 in the UK and U.S. No other country in the OECD, with a fully developed economy, scores above two. Israel has shown that the trend can be bucked and that it is possible to combine modernity and prosperity with a healthy level of childbearing. Certainly the birth rate of Haredim in Israel is sky-high, but moderately religious and secular Israelis have much larger families than their counterparts in rich countries in Europe, North America and East Asia.