Estimates of fertility levels in a rural community of Saudi Arabia.

There is a dearth of information on fertility levels in Saudi Arabia. In the absence of a reliable vital registration system, fertility level can be estimated from sample surveys. The Gompertz relational fertility model has been fitted to parity data on 923 women from a survey in the Al-Baha region. The estimated total fertility rate was 8.4. Education and age at marriage have strong association with the level of fertility. Those who married at early ages had higher parities, whereas women who had more than primary education reported lower parities.