Because of its geographical location on the shores of the Mediterranean, Lebanon, a small country of three million inhabitants, has enjoyed a long mercantile and service tradition, forming a link between the western world and the east. Moreover, long before it became independent in 1943, Lebanon has served as an educational and cultural centre for the Middle East region. Consequently, the country has been open to outside influences throughout its history which have hastened its process of modernization, particularly its social development, relative to the other countries of the region. The recent civil war, starting in 1975, has caused a severe setback to its achievements. Social development in Lebanon has affected the demographic transition in the country. In a study of the demographic situation, Courbage and Farguest estimated the crude death rate in 1970 to be 9.1 per thousand. They demonstrated a downward trend in fertility, the crude birth rate being estimated at 40.9 for the period 1952-62, 40.7 for 1964-67 and 34.6 in 1970. The latest estimates of the Population Division of the UN Economic Commission for Western Asia show Lebanon to have the lowest fertility among the countries of the region.2 Fertility levels, however, are not uniform throughout Lebanon, but reflect the differentials in development within the country. The south of Lebanon is a region where fertility levels relative to the other regions of the country have been consistently high.3 It is a rural agricultural area which has been relatively undeveloped because of its predominantly feudal political and social structure and the political instability resulting from its proximity to Israel. Most recently, in March 1978, the south was the battlefield of a full-scale war. Since the beginning of this decade, social workers in the south have been impressed by a growing desire among the population to control its fertility. Such a change in desired fertility has probably been brought about by several factors, the most important being: (1) the impact of contact with the city through an internal migration towards the capital, Beirut, in search of jobs, (2) improved educational facilities, (3) a reduction in infant mortality rates and (4) political and economic instability in the area generating a continuous state of insecurity. In this paper we aim to study fertility trends and determinants in the south of Lebanon in the face of these changes. A useful framework for fertility analysis is to divide factors determining fertility into: (1) biological and behavioural factors which influence fertility levels directly the intermediate fertility variables, and (2) the socio-economic variables that operate on these factors. Davis and Blake4 were the first investigators to develop a framework outlining the inter-