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PALESTINIAN SOCIETY - Fafo

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Fertility<br />

Introduction<br />

The Palestinian population in the occupied territories is characterized<br />

by a very high birth rate. The Israeli CBS (1992) reports a birth rate<br />

of 46.5 per 1000 population for the West Bank and 56. 1 for the Gaza<br />

Strip during 1991,24 Moreover, the FALCOT 92 results on age<br />

structure show that more than 45 % of the population is younger than<br />

15 years of age. The pattem of annual births reported by ICBS for the<br />

years 1968-1991 shows no specific decIine in the birth rate during the<br />

1970s and early 1980s. It suggests, on the other hand, arising birth rate<br />

since the outbreak of Intifada. As for the total fertility rate (TFR),<br />

Israeli published results show a rise in the TFR during the 1970s and<br />

a pattem of decIine later on (ICBS, 1987). These estimates are<br />

provided for the period 1968 - 1984. For more recent years we have<br />

not been able to locate any published results on TFR and age specific<br />

fertility rates (ASFR). Moreover, the ICBS annual publication on<br />

population dynamics cannot be used in its present format to estimate<br />

these indicators.<br />

Fertility indicators for the occupied territories have not been<br />

estimated by any independent source so far. The only exception is<br />

UNICEF JFPPA (1992).25 Being a major determinant of trends in<br />

family and future population size, the lack of reliable fertility estimates<br />

seems distiIrbing.<br />

In this section, we use data on children ever bom (CEB), cIassified<br />

by age of mother orduration of mother' s marriage, to estimate various<br />

fertility measures.<br />

Summary Statisties<br />

of FALCOT 92 Input Data<br />

A total of 1219 women were interviewed, excIuding those with<br />

missing information on data needed for this section. Of those females<br />

who completed the interview, 830 (68.1 %) reported being ever<br />

married (EMW).<br />

These 830 women have given birth to 4724 living children (2470<br />

boys and 2254 girIs, with a sex ratio of 1.10, which indicates a small<br />

over-reporting of boys - or under-reporting of girls - as the sex ratio<br />

at birth is usually between 1.02 and 1.06). Women who were less than<br />

62

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