Socio-economic Development, Population Policies, and Fertility Decline in Muslim Countries

Islam is one of the world’s major monotheistic religions. Its followers, spread all over the world and numbering about 1.5 billion people, constitute about one-fourth of the world’s population. The Economist (2003). Muslims are mainly concentrated in about 50 countries, most of which have had slow pace of fertility transition, mainly due to low level of socio-economic development, on the one hand, and lack of effective population policy, on the other. With the help of macro level data available on Muslimmajority countries, this paper examines fertility decline in these countries, their socio-economic indicators, and support for family planning. Examples from two neighbouring countries—Pakistan and Iran—are also given.