The number of births per female in Iran dropped from nearly 7 in 1960 to under 2 in 2000, and it has stayed there. See this [via Alan]
The linked article makes several interesting points:
- "Never before in recorded history has the birth rate of a big country fallen so fast and so far."
- As women become educated, fertility rates decline, even in Muslim countries. "Muslim total fertility rates correlate closely with female literacy rates: As soon as Muslim women have the means to make their own decisions, they reject traditional society and the fertility behavior associated with it."
- "Iran has the highest incidence of lifetime infertility of any country in the world, estimated at between 22% and 25% ... Roughly a quarter of Iranian couples, that is, are unable to bear children. By comparison, lifetime infertility ranges from 11% in Europe and 15% in India."
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"One explanation for Iran's strikingly infertility rate is the high level of consanguineous (cousin) marriages....This surmise probably is wrong. Iran's rate of cousin marriage is about 25%, lower than most of the Middle East."
- "A more probable cause of Iran's extremely high rate of infertility is sexually transmitted disease [STD], particularly chlamydia, the most common bacterial STD and one likely to go undetected in countries with poor public health systems."
- "Iran appears to have the world's highest rate of lifetime infertility because it also has the world's highest rate of STD infections."
The article then points out that like many countries with low fertility rates, Iran is facing a long-term problem of an aging society with a small productive demographic base.