Demographic and Socio-economic Situation in Muslim Countries: A Comparative Analysis

As societies transform from a predominantly traditional to a predominantly modem system they tend to experience considerable demographic changes. Ansley Coale (1984) notes that this "transformation is the substitution of slow growth achieved with low fertility and mortality for slow growth maintained with relatively high fertility and mortality rates." Islam is one of the world’s major monotheistic religions. It’s followers are spread all over the World, 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 whom have had slow pace of fertility transition, mainly due to low level of socioeconomic development on the one hand and lack of effective population policy on the other. With the help of macro level data available on Muslim-majority countries, this paper examines, fertility decline in these countries, their socioeconomic indicators and support for family planning. Examples from two neighbouring countries –Pakistan and Iranare also given.