The relative
birth rates of Jews and Muslims is a sensitive issue in Israel as it vies to remain a Jewish and democratic state.
Author Robert Shorto cited a 2002 study by Italian, German and Spanish social scientists which showed that for the first time on record
birth rates in southern and Eastern Europe had dropped below 1.3.
Because of its high
birth rate, the West African nation of Niger (twice the size of Texas) is a very young country, with almost half its population (48.9 percent) under age 14.
*
Birth rates for women ages 35 to 39 (43.8 births per 1,000 women) and 40 to 44 (8.7 births per 1,000 women) were the highest in more than three decades.
All this will need to change in order to boost the
birth rate and female labor participation.
* The teen
birth rate fell for the 12th straight year, from 43.0 births per 1,000 teens aged 15-19 years in 2002 to 41.7 in 2003.
The effect was greatest in men exposed before age 20, who had a male
birth rate of 46%.
The pope is urging Italians to have more children to reverse the country's declining
birth rate.
That, along with tracking the
birth rate is the guiding principle for demographers.
* The
birth rate for females 10 to 14 years of age remained unchanged in 2000 with 0.9 births per 1,000.
Labor did not respond with a fully off-setting rise in the
birth rate, as Malthus had predicted, and the effect was a shift to economies in which labor is scarce and expensive and capital and energy are abundant and cheap--though that is not the way populists usually perceive them.