Culture, religion, and fertility: a global view

This study tries to assess the effects of culture and religion on fertility after accounting for a country's socioeconomic standing. Analysis of covariance models are estimated for 128 countries with time-series covering the period 1950-1975. The dependent variable is the gross reproduction rate; independent variables are the infant mortality rate, an aggregate indicator of female educational standing, and gross domestic product per person as well as categorical variables for religion and cultural region. It turns out that the European countries have generally lower fertility than could be expected from their socioeconomic standing. In the Arab countries, culture and religion tend to have strong positive effects on fertility. Across cultures, Catholicism has a fertility-increasing effect but it--like the effect of all religions except Islam--is diminishing over time. In contrast, the effect of culture (as measured by a regional variable) on the level of national fertility has been increasing at the expense of socioeconomic effects.