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Article: The Middle East's demographic transition: what does it mean?
- Article from:
- Journal of International Affairs
- Article date:
- September 22, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Columbia University School of International Public Affairs. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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"[F]rom Morocco to Iran ... [b]irth rates are falling, and the baby boom that characterized the 1960s and 1970s has given way to a potentially more favorable situation. The population growth is occurring not in the ranks of under-15-year-old dependents, but in the ranks of the working- age population (15 to 64 year olds)."
Today's Middle East conjures up an image of masses of young disaffected males loitering in hot, densely populated cities with crumbling infrastructure and dim prospects for jobs. This picture is true-for many cities around the Mediterranean littoral--Casablanca, Algiers, Cairo and Gaza. Farther east, in Baghdad and Riyadh, the problem is also ...