This paper examines the ethnic differentials in fertility in Malawi using data from the 2000 Malawi Demographic and Health survey. Fertility was estimated for each ethnic group using various procedures and multiple regressions were employed in order to understand factors responsible for ethnic differentials in fertility in the country. Although all ethnic groups in Malawi exhibit high fertility...

The own-children method of fertility estimation tracks temporal changes in fertility patterns. We revisit the Kenyan fertility transition by applying the method to 1979, 1989 and 1999 censuses, and 1989, 1993, 1998 and 2003 Demographic and Health Surveys data. The method's ability to provide yearly fertility rates for periods preceding each data source adds enormous knowledge to fertility patte...

The science of demography focuses on the drivers of population dynamics: fertility, mortality, and migration. Demography is inherently interdisciplinary and draws on theory from a range of social sciences, including sociology, economics, and anthropology. The demographers’ approach to fertility research at a given time is grounded in the contemporaneous fertility trends and fertility-related te...

Religious studies of fertility typically focus on the effect of religious affiliation on fertility; the role of religiosity in determining fertility remains overlooked. Meanwhile, most studies focus on studying female fertility; whether religion and religiosity have significantly different impacts on men’s and women’s fertility rarely has been examined. To fill these gaps, this study uses data ...

Lower fertility has several benefits at the individual level: fewer births are associated with better health and schooling outcomes for women and their children, with higher household income and wealth, and with improved labour market opportunities for women. Indonesia established a national family planning programme in 1969 and total fertility has declined rapidly since but there is little con...

OBJECTIVE To analyze the perceived impact of insurance coverage for fertility medications on patients' fertility treatment decision-making. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional study involving a patient survey and chart review of women at a Canadian university-affiliated fertility centre. The primary outcome was to determine whether women with self-reported insurance coverage for fertility ...

Discussions about fertility in developed countries refer almost exclusively to the period Total Fertility Rate (TFR). We argue that the use of this indicator frequently leads to incorrect interpretations of period fertility levels and trends, resulting in distorted policy conclusions and, potentially, in misguided policies. We illustrate this with four policy-relevant examples, drawn from conte...

Despite extensive research, doubts remain regarding the degree of correspondence between prior stated fertility preferences and subsequent fertility behavior. Preference instability is a factor that potentially undermines predictiveness. Furthermore, if other predictors of fertility substantially explain fertility, then knowledge of preferences may contribute little to explaining or predicting ...

This study summarizes patterns of educational differentials in wanted and unwanted fertility at different stages of the fertility transition. The data are from Demographic and Health Surveys in 57 less developed countries. As the transition proceeds, educational differentials in wanted fertility tend to decline and differentials in unwanted fertility tend to rise. An assessment of fertility pat...

The age-specific fertility pattern has a typical shape common in all human populations through years. In order to describe this shape a number of parametric models have been proposed. Recently, the fertility pattern in developed countries exhibits a deviation from the classical one. Recent data sets of the United Kingdom, Ireland and the US show distortions in terms of a bulge in fertility rate...