Major findings from an analysis of demographic information collected in a 1979 survey in the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) are that: levels of contraceptive use are extremely low in the rural areas that constitute most of the nation and considerably higher in the capital, Sana'a; fertility is very high and, until recently, was higher in Sana'a than in rural areas; mortality of children is very high with small urban–rural differentials; breast-feeding durations tend to be short, considering Yemen's extremely low level of development; and, female infants appear to be breast-fed longer than male infants in Sana'a, a phenomenon never previously documented. It is argued that the observed convergence between fertility levels in Sana'a and rural Yemen results from increased contraception in Sana'a, which offsets fertility differences introduced by longer breast-feeding in rural areas.