Fertility in Israel: Is the Transition to Replacement Level in Sight?

The dynamics of Israel’s fertility patterns revolve around three major socio-demographic dimensions – religion, ethnicity and socioeconomic structure. Jews, Moslems Arabs, Christian Arabs, and Druze Arabs are the major ethno-religious groups. The second dimension is ethnicity among the Jewish population. Distinction is made between populations of European or American origins (to be referred to as European-American), and of Middle Eastern and North African origins (to be referred to as AsianAfrican). In the last two to three decades the role of ethnicity in the fertility patterns of the Jewish population, has attenuated, while religiosity and socioeconomic status have become the most important distinguishing factors between high and low fertility.