Confounding all conventional wisdom, the fertility rate in the Islamic Republic of Iran fell from
around 7.0 births per woman in the early 1980s to 2.1 births per woman in 2000. That this, the
largest and fastest fall in fertility ever recorded, should have occurred in one of the world’s few
Islamic Republics demands explanation. The paper addresses this issue in three parts. The second
part is its core: a description of fertility levels, trends and patterns in Iran by rural and urban areas
and provinces in the 19722000 period. Own-children data from the 1986 and 1996 Censuses as
well as the 2000 Iran Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS) allow us to analyse single-year
movements of fertility over the last three decades. This demographic description is proceeded by a
socio-political history of Iran in the years 19702000, providing a context for the demographic
changes. We conclude with some speculations linking specific socio-economic and political
changes to the demographic change. Our concluding arguments suggest continued low fertility in
Iran.