Shmuel Rosner
Avinoam Bar-Yosef, Dan Feferman, Shlomo Fischer, Avi Gil,
Inbal Hakman, Michael Herzog, Gitit Levy-Paz, Dov Maimon, Steven Popper, Uzi Rebhun, John Ruskay, Adar Schiber, Noah Slepkov, Shalom Salomon Wald
Barry Geltman
Rami Tal
Jewish fertility outside of Israel currently amounts, on average, to 1.5 children per woman. However, one should distinguish between the exceptionally low fertility of the Jewish communities in the FSU countries (slightly greater than 1 child per woman), the 1.5 children-per-woman figure for North America, France, and Argentina, and the 2.1 figure for Mexico. Israeli fertility rates are much higher. During the period 2010-2014, the average figure was 3.03; this rose to 3.16 in 2016 and remained unchanged the following year. In 2018, it rose again to 3.17 (this is the last year for which there is available data).11 Overall, the Israel-Diaspora ratio is 2:1 Jewish births.
Although this overview is concerned specifically with Jews, it is worth noting that, in recent years, the fertility gaps between Jews and Muslims in Israel have greatly narrowed, with the latter group’s fertility rate now standing at 3.2. Israeli Christian and Druze women exhibit a lower fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman. The group with the lowest fertility rate in Israel is that of women with no religious affiliation (1.5 children),12 reflecting in many cases the fertility patterns of their regions of origin in the FSU countries.
