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Iran's family planning program led to a dramatic decline in family size
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Were you surprised to see the images of Iranian women protesting the recent election result?
Typically, women in Muslim parts of the world don't show up for demonstrations and make demands of their leaders in public.
But Iran is different from many of its neighbors.
When it comes to population planning, Iran has outdone itself. As a result, its women are more advanced than their peers in other countries in a region where big families are the norm.
Iran has experienced the fastest decline in fertility over the last two decades, according to a recent United Nations report (see Table A.14). Between the mid-1970s and 2006, women went from having about 6.6 children on average to about 2 children, according to the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education.
That is no mean feat.
The most dramatic decline in the number of children occurred in rural areas. In one generation (about 30 years), rural women went from giving birth to an average of 8 children to around 2, according to a blog by Farzaneh Roudi, program director for the Middle East and North Africa at the Population Reference Bureau.
The average number of children a woman has in some neighboring countries is far higher: Afghanistan (6.8), Iraq (4.6), Pakistan (4.1), according to the Population Reference Bureau.
Photo: AP/ Ben Curtis
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