Israel Has Highest OECD Birth Rate, Numbers Show

Israel in 2016 had the highest birth rate of any Westernized country. In 2016, according to an OECD report comparing birth rates statistics of member countries, a total of 181,405 babies were born, 92 percent more than in 1980. Of those, 93,364 were boys and 88,041 were girls, according to the statistics in the report, as compiled by the Central Bureau of Statistics.

Israeli mothers have an average of 3.11 children, far greater than the average 2.1 children in OECD countries. The average age of a first-time Israeli mother is 27.6, while on average mothers have their second child at age 29.6, and their third at 31.9. Multiple births accounted for 4.65 percent of 2016 births, and 97 percent of those were twins.

Of cities with 10,000 or more residents, Modi’in Illit (Kiryat Sefer) tops the list of family size, with an average 7.59 children per family. In second place is Beitar Illit, with 7.2 children per family. In Bnei Brak, families had an average of 5.79 children. Six out of the top 10 cities for family size, in fact, were cities with large chareidi populations, while four were Bedouin settlements. At the bottom of the list is Kiryat Tivon, where families had an average of 1.91 children, and the Galilee Arab town of Ar’ara, where there were 1.95 children in a family.