Kurdish women’s fertility behavior and its determinants in Iran using hierarchical linear model

Serajeddin Mahmoudiani, University of Tehran
Mohamadreza Boroumandzade, University of Tehran
Mohammad Daneshgar, Azad University

Fertility has dramatically declined in Iran in the past three decades with a fertility rate of below replacement level. So in recent years, policymakers have paid attention to new policies to achieve population increase. In the meantime differences in fertility levels are also emphasized between Shiite and Sunni religious groups. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of religion and development on women’s fertility behavior in the selected towns from three Kurdish provinces. The method of this study was a secondary analysis and analysis method was also a two-level analysis. Data were extracted from the census in 2010. Our study included 9457 married women between 15-49 years of age, from the selected towns (27 of towns) of Kermanshah, Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan provinces. Data analyzed by HLM6 software. The results showed that the difference in fertility level is very low between the two religious groups and religion did not show a significant effect on the fertility of women. In contrast, levels of development of the towns had strong and significant effect on women’s fertility rate. Residence place, education level and employment status were variables in second level. The findings also indicated that residence place, education level and employment status have a significant effect on women’s fertility behavior. Education level had a most effect on dependent variable. In the end, we concluded that the issue of the religious imbalance is not related to fertility rate in Iran. Keywords: Fertility, Religion, level of development, Kurdish women, Iran, Multi- level analysis.