Fertility differentials by ecological zones in rural West Java Province

Abstract

This thesis examines fertility and family planning in the four ecological zones in Rural West Java Province: the Northern, Highland, Southern and Banten zones. It investigates variations in fertility among ever married women according to education, occupation, age at marriage, marital status and number of marriages. The index of fertility in this 3tudy is the mean number of children ever born to ever married women. The analysis found that both before and after standardization, there was an apparent dichotomy of fertility: the Highland and Banten zones with high fertility and the Southern and Northern zones with lower fertility. This dichotomy of fertility also persists when various socio-economic variables are controlled. This study also shows that the Highlanders and the Southerners accepted family planning more readily than the Northerners and Bantenese.