ABSTRACT
Syria’s population increased rapidly during the 1980s, with an average rate of natural increase during 1986–89 of 38 per thousand. Syria’s population at the end of 1990 was estimated at 12.5m. High gross birthrates and a low gross mortality rate continued in the 1980s, which explains the high rate of natural increase. The reduction in the fertility rates during the period under discussion was not the result of a government family planning policy but of socioeconomic changes in Syrian society during the last generation. In 1990 approximately 60% of the total Syrian population was concentrated in four regions: Damascus, Aleppo, Homs and Hama. In July 1988, President Hafiz al-Asad ordered the formation of a special public committee to examine the economic position and employment situation of university graduates in general, and engineering and medicine graduates in particular, in order to analyze the causes of emigration by graduates in these professions.
