Age at Marriage, Fertility and Infant-Child Mortality in a Lahore Suburb (Part I)

Abstract

This study attempts to throw light on some of the major determinants of fertility and family size, based on the data on 700 ever-married females collec¬ted through a retrospective sample survey, which was carried out in a suburb of Lahore city in 1973. The analysis of the data in this study is presented in respect of such variables as age at marriage of females, the number of pregnancies experienced by mothers, parity progression ratios, age specific fertility and cumulative fertility, infant mortality and child mortality. Each one of these has an important impact on the formation of families and consequently on the patterns of popula¬tion growth. A study of the levels of each of these factors and the influence that they exercise on each other is of importance because these variables consti¬tute important links in the chain of demographic phenomena. Similarly, an understanding of the extent to which these factors, individually or jointly, are interrelated with some other social and economic variables, has a considerable importance due to their ultimate impact on the growth of population in the country. This study, though limited to a suburb of Lahore city, has important policy implications because it attempts to describe the patterns of fertility in the context of some important demographic, social and economic determinants.