Youth, Women's Rights, and Political Change in Iran
Recent political developments in Iran highlight the country's demographic and social shifts over the past 20 years. One in three Iranians is between the ages of 15 and 29. Furthermore, 60 percent of the Iranian population is under 30, born around the 1979 Islamic revolution or after. This youth bulge, along with changes in women's fertility and reproductive health, provide a backdrop for understanding Iran's current political instability. (July 2009)

Challenges and Opportunities—The Population of the Middle East and North Africa

 This Population Bulletin looks at recent demographic trends in the Middle East and North Africa and how they interact with social and economic forces of change. It shows how this high-profile region is being transformed by mortality and fertility declines and a veritable revolution in marriage patterns and family planning use. The Bulletin  also considers the effects of immigration and refugee movements on the labor force as well as on the age and sex composition of country populations. (BUL62.2; June 2007)

Youth in the Middle East and North Africa: Demographic Opportunity or Challenge?

 Despite oil resources and major improvements in health and education, the Middle East and North Africa region is not meeting the changing needs of its rapidly growing young population. This policy brief gives an overview of demographic trends among MENA youth and the implications of these trends for the region's human and economic development. This policy brief is also available in Arabic. (April 2007)

Young People's Sexual and Reproductive Health in the Middle East and North Africa

 In the Middle East and North Africa, the risks associated with sexual relationships, both married and unmarried, are heightened by young people's lack of access to information and services related to sexual and reproductive health. Programs that provide such information and services would benefit young people whether they are sexually active now or not, preparing them to make more informed decisions about marriage, sexual relationships, and childbearing.(April 2007)

Time to Intervene: Preventing the Spread of HIV/AIDS in the Middle East and North Africa

 This policy brief helps raise awareness among decisionmakers in the Middle East and North Africa about the urgent need for action by presenting some HIV/AIDS warning signs, risks, and vulnerabilities in the region. The number of people living with HIV/AIDS in MENA is low but increasing in every country in the region. This policy brief is also available in Arabic. (February 2007)

PRB-UNFPA Country Profiles for Population and Reproductive Health 2005
PRB and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) have jointly published the Country Profiles for Population and Reproductive Health: Policy Developments and Indicators 2005. The volume, which updates the 2003 edition, contains national and subnational indicators on the demographic and social situation in 163 countries and subregions. (March 2006)

Iran Faces Pressure to Provide Jobs, Address Health Disparities
Amid increasing international pressure to curb its nuclear program, Iran also faces significant population pressures at home: from creating jobs for a massive pool of young baby boomers to resolving provincial disparities in the availability of reproductive health services. (September 2004)

Islam and Family Planning

 This policy brief gives an overview of Muslim countries' policies on and support for family planning and modern contraception. It reviews Islamic jurisprudence and justifications for sanctioning family planning. This policy brief is also available in Arabic. (September 2004)

Progress Toward the Millennium Development Goals in the Middle East
Countries in the MENA region were among the 189 countries that attended the 2000 United Nations Millennium Summit, where leaders from around the word adopted the Millennium Declaration and made a commitment to combat poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women. This policy brief is also available in Arabic. (March 2004)

Empowering Women, Developing Society: Female Education in the Middle East and North Africa
While access to education for females has improved dramatically over the past few decades in the Middle East, many are still excluded. Education helps women prepare for the labor force and helps them understand their legal and reproductive rights. This policy brief is also available in Arabic. (November 2003)

Women's Reproductive Health in the Middle East and North Africa (PDF: 234KB)
About half of the 10 million women who give birth each year in the Middle East and North Africa have some kind of complication, with more then 1 million of them suffering serious injuries that lead to long-term illness. (February 2003)

Finding the Balance: Population and Water Scarcity in the Middle East and North Africa
The Middle East and North Africa is home to 6.3 percent of the world's population yet has only 1.4 percent of the world's fresh renewable water. This policy brief is also available in Arabic. (July 2002)

Iran's Family Planning Program: Responding to a Nation's Needs

 This overview of Iran's family planning efforts and the role of the Islamic government and civil society in the revival of the national family planning program is the second in a series of policy briefs from the Population Reference Bureau. This series analyzes population, environment, reproductive health, and development linkages within the framework of the Cairo Programme of Action and the cultural contexts of population groups in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This policy brief is also available in Arabic. (June 2002)

Iran Achieves Replacement-Level Fertility
With control over their reproduction Iranian women are choosing to have fewer children. Acceptance of the two-child norm is chiefly due to a campaign encouraging small families, the national health care network, government programs promoting rural development and literacy, and the Islamic leadership's support for family planning. (Population Today, May/June 2002)

Population Trends and Challenges in the Middle East and North Africa
The people of the Middle East and North Africa have long played an integral, if sometimes volatile, role in the history of human civilization. Today, MENA's rapid population growth exacerbates the challenges that this region faces as it enters the third millennium. (December 2001)