Religiosity and marital fertility: Israeli Arab Muslims, 1955-1972

This study examines the relationship between religiosity and marital fertility in a Muslim society around the onset of the transition using the 1973-74 Israeli Fertility Survey. In rural areas, where no decline was discernable, there was a negative relationship between religiosity and marital fertility, while in urban areas there was no relationship. The results of this study suggest that the negative relationship in rural areas is because of differences in breast-feeding. Following Quranic recommendations, the more religious seem to breast-feed longer. Demographic, social, and economic characteristics of the more and less religious do not account for the negative relationship. Demographic, social, and economic characteristics and the use of contraceptive methods, however, do explain, in part, the absence of a negative relationship in urban areas.