Socio-economic changes impact Jordanian's life style: study

The Jordanian society becomes "less fertile, less inclined to early marriage, relatively more dynamic and more educated" in recent years according to a study published by local newspaper Jordan Times on Thursday.

The study quoted a bulletin released by the Jordan's Department of Statistics as reporting that the fertility rate in the country declined "significantly" from 7.4 children per female in 1976 and 6.6 in 1983 to 5.6 in 2005.

According to the bulletin, "socio-economic changes had significant impacts on people's attitude towards early marriage in Jordan."

The average first-marriage age for females increased significantly from 21.1 years old in 1979 to 24.7 in 1994 and 26.8 years old in 2005. The average also increased for males from 26 years old in 1979 to 27.9 in 1994 and 29.7 years old last year.

The bulletin said that Jordan had also made a significant progress in the field of education during the past five decades, " both quantitatively and qualitatively".

The gross basic school enrollment rate reached 97.7 percent in 2004 compared to 91.2 percent in 1979 and the secondary school gross enrollment rate from 77.2 percent in 1979 rose to 89.7 percent in 2004.

Meanwhile, illiteracy declined from 68.2 percent in 1961 to 10 percent in 2004, the bulletin noted.

The age structure of the Jordanian population changed noticeably, too, with the ratio of children aged under 15 decreasing from 50.7 percent in 1979 to 37.3 percent in 2005.

In the same period, the percentage of the 15-59 age group rose from 45.2 percent in 1979 to 57.5 percent last year, while that of senior citizens went up from 4.1 percent to 5.2 percent.

An earlier official statistics showed that Jordan's gross domestic product (GDP) increased threefold in the past two and half decades, from around four billion U.S. dollars in 1980 to 12. 86 billion dollars in 2005.

Source: Xinhua