ABSTRACT
The relationship between population growth and economic development has been subject to much debate in both the western world and the Middle East, but as with so much else in economics, no generally accepted conclusions have been reached. There is not even agreement on the fundamental issues of what determines population growth and whether there are universal trends. Many development economists believe that the rate of population growth reflects the stage of economic development a country has reached, with a tendency for the rate to decline as an outcome of the development process.1 Others assert that population growth reflects family preferences, and is determined by cultural and social factors.2 The trends in the western world towards falling rates of growth may therefore not be followed in a region such as the Middle East where Islamic values prevail.
