Differential fertility in Bangladesh

Abstract

This study of differential fertility is based on a subset of data obtained from the Bangladesh Fertility Survey (BFS) conducted in 1975-76 by the Ministry of Health, Population Control and Family Planning of the Government of Bangladesh under the auspices of the World Fertility Survey. The index of fertility used here is the mean number of children ever born to ever married women (aged 10-49) who were selected for the individual interview in the survey. The differentials in fertility are examined in terms of selected demographic, socio-economic, and cultural characteristics of the ever married wcxnen and their current/last husbands’ socio-economic background. The study has succeeded in dissecting the "high fertility segments" of the population and exploring some of the underlying causes and motives. It has also built up fertility models separately for the rural area, the urban area, and the country as a whole. Though the models are temporal and subjective, these can be used fcr disentangling a complex set of relationships that are at work in tie population. Show more