Culture, Religion and Fertility: A Global View

Lutz, W. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7975-8145 (1986). Culture, Religion and Fertility: A Global View. IIASA Working Paper. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: WP-86-034

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Abstract

This study tries to assess the effects of culture and religion on fertility after accounting for a country's socio-economic standing. Analysis of covariance models are estimated for 128 countries with time-series covering the period 1950-75. The dependent variable is the gross reproduction rate; independent variables are the infant mortality rate, an aggregate indicator of female educational standing, and GDP per caput as well as categorial variables for religion and cultural region.

It turns out that the European countries have generally lower fertility than could be expected from their socio-economic standing. In the Arabic countries culture and religion tend to have strong positive effects on fertility. Across cultures Catholicism has a fertility-increasing effect but it is--like the effect of all religions except Islam--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 socio-economic effects.

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