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Behind Israel's Curiously High Fertility Rate

(National Post-Canada) Danielle Kubes - Israel's fertility rate - 2.9 - is the highest in the OECD by a wide margin, nearly double Canada's fertility rate of 1.5. Israel is an outlier among developed countries with advanced economies, educated populations, and high female workforce participation. The real story is the high birth rate of traditional and secular Jewish couples. "Anyone who lives here is expected to have children," Sigal Gooldin, a Hebrew University sociologist, told the New York Times. "In casual conversation you will be asked how many children you have and if you say one, people will ask why only one, and if you say two, why only two?" Why both moderately religious and non-religious couples are choosing to procreate so often is a mystery to demographers, as it is in opposition to trends in Europe, North America and Asia. The real secret to Israel's fertility rates appears to be cultural. The family is at the absolute center of Israeli life. Getting married and having kids is the highest cultural value. Holocaust generational trauma is also part of the story. The global population of Jews is still lower than what it was before the Second World War and there is a sense among Israelis that they have a duty to replenish those numbers. But most importantly, children are seen as a blessing instead of a burden. I have never heard an Israeli lament the cost of having children and the impact more humans will have on climate change. Despite the fact that they live in a land where they know they will have to send their children into the army at 18, they aren't afraid to bring children into the world. Rather, they believe the only way to make a better world is to have children.
2023-03-02 00:00:00
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