Israel’s Muslim minority has a far greater birth rate than the Jewish
majority, a government study found. According to Industry and Trade Ministry
data released this week ahead of International Women’s Day, Jewish women in
Israel on average have 2.69 children each and give birth to the first at age
30. By contrast, Muslim women on average have four children each and
give birth to the first at age 27. Arabs, the vast majority of them
Muslims, constitute approximately 20 percent of the Jewish state’s
population. According to the Industry and Trade Ministry, Israel’s dwindling
Christian Arab community lags behind the Jews in terms of birth rate. The
typical Israeli Christian woman has her first child at age 28 and an average total of 2.15 children.
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