Fertility and population policy in two counties in China 1980-1991.

ABSTRACT

PIP: This survey examined the diversity in reproductive behavior and contraceptive practice to determine whether their differentials are influenced by area or those between individuals within the areas. Data were collected from three separate surveys of women in two highly developed rural counties of China, Sichuan and Jiangsu Provinces carried out in late 1991. The main findings established were: 1) the pattern of fertility and contraceptive use was found at the individual level rather than in policy differences between administrative units; 2) the association between income and number of children was negative, as that between income and propensity for uniparous women to remain unsterilized; 3) the ideal family size differentials were largely absent, showing that social and economic characteristics were not responsible for differences in reproductive motivations, and implying that the nature of the demand for children was very different from that in most rural areas of the Third World; 4) data on ideal family size by sex of the existing offspring indicate only a weak preference for sons.