Research on fertility and family at the TAU Center for Population Science focuses on Israel’s unique fertility patterns and their social and economic implications. Israel is a “demographic anomaly,” for several decades exhibiting the highest fertility rates among OECD countries, even as many Western societies experienced continuous fertility decline. The field examines how religiosity, family structure, gender, welfare policy, and cultural norms shape reproductive behavior and family life in Israel.

At the academic level, researchers seek to understand why fertility decline in Israel has stalled in contrast to many Western countries, and how religiosity became one of the strongest predictors of demographic behavior. Research also addresses changes in family composition and their implications for intergenerational transfers, housing demand, access to contraception and abortion, education systems, and welfare services. The field combines demography, sociology, economics, psychology, and public policy in order to understand how decisions are made at the individual and household level, determining broader population-level trends.