ABSTRACT
Population trends in Jordan are of great interest to demographers given the country’s distinctive demographic regime. Until very recently the rate of natural increase was amongst the highest in the world (Findlay and Maani 1995). In the mid-1990s the population doubling time for Jordan remains only 18 years. As well as having a very high rate of natural increase Jordan has also been a major destination for refugee movements. Palestinians fleeing from conflicts in neighbouring territories to the west, have formed the majority of refugees, but other influxes of population have also occurred, including the recent arrival of Palestinian labour migrants and their families from Kuwait in the aftermath of the Gulf War of 1991. The size of Jordan’s refugee population is a matter of some dispute, but few would contest that in world terms Jordan has one of the highest proportions of refugees in relation to total population. In addition to these exceptional circumstances, in the 1970s and 1980s Jordan experienced an intense involvement in the system of international labour migration which focused on the Arab oil economies. A very significant proportion of skilled Jordanians emigrated during these years resulting in Jordan’s national earnings from migrant remittances rising rapidly to account by the 1980s for the equivalent of a quarter of the value of the Gross Domestic Product. In short, Jordan is a state which has experienced remarkable demographic and economic circumstances over the last few decades. It is as a result a site of particular interest to demographers and population geographers.
