Developed or Developing Countries
Developed countries usually have a much lower fertility rate due to greater wealth, education, and urbanization. Mortality rates are low, birth control is understood and easily accessible, and costs are often deemed very high because of education, clothing, feeding, and social amenities. With wealth, contraception becomes affordable. However, in countries like Iran where contraception was subsidised before the economy accelerated, birth rate also rapidly declined. Further, longer periods of time spent getting higher education often mean women have children later in life. The result is the demographic-economic paradox. Female labor participation rate also has substantial negative impact on fertility. However, this effect is neutralized among Nordic or liberalist countries.
In undeveloped countries on the other hand, families desire children for their labour and as caregivers for their parents in old age. Fertility rates are also higher due to the lack of access to contraceptives, generally lower levels of female education, and lower rates of female employment in industry. The total fertility rate for the world has been declining very rapidly since the 1990s. Some forecasters like Sanjeev Sanyal argue that, adjusted for gender imbalances, the effective global fertility will fall below replacement rate in the 2020s. This will stabilize world population by 2050, which is much sooner than the UN Population Division expects.
| Period | U.S. Total Fertility Rate |
|---|---|
| 1930–34 | 2.1 |
| 1935–39 | 2.0 |
| 1940–44 | 2.5 |
| 1945–49 | 3.0 |
| 1950–54 | 3.3 |
| 1955–59 | 3.7 |
| 1960–64 | 3.4 |
| 1965–69 | 2.6 |
| 1970–74 | 2.1 |
| 1975–79 | 1.8 |
Read more about this topic: Total Fertility Rate
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