Measurement of Fertility

Tsuyoshi Horibata, Kotaro Hirano

Equations of measurements of fertility:

• Crude Birth Rate CBR = total no. of births x 1000 per year total population

• General Fertility Rate GFR = no. of births x 1000 per yearwomen in 15-49 year range

• Age-Specific Birth Rate RSBR = no. of births x 1000 per year women of any specified year group

Population Transition Model

Total Fertility Rate

Standardized Birth Rate (SBR)

Advantage- CBR is easy to calculate and the data are readily available.

Disadvantage- It does not take into account the age and sex structure of the population

Crude Birth Rate

Total Fertility Rate

Advantage- It focuses on how many children a woman would give birth to, instead of total births from a population.

Disadvantage- It does not take into account the children given birth to by woman who are above child bearing age.- Useless without Age-Specific Fertility Rate

Advantage- SBR is good when comparing fertility of different populations because it eliminates the effect on the birth rate of certain differences in structure of the population (most commonly the age and sex structure).

Disadvantage- It is not an accurate measurement because the region’s age composition is adjusted so it is the same as that of the whole country.

Standardized Birth Rate

General Fertility Rate

Advantage:-This measurement provides more refined measure of fertility than the crude birth rate and requires only the total number of births and the total female population, ages 15 to 49.

Disadvantage:-This measurement is hard to measure compare to other measurements. Also it is not widely used.

Age-Specific Fertility Rate

Advantage:- Well known structure for measuring specific age group of

women.- Can compare to other group of women that whether they have

good family planning.Disadvantage:- Without detailed data, the result will acknowledge as not

reliable.- Takes a lot of time- Not good data to calculate population growth

Citation• Nagle, Garrett. IB STUDY GUIDES Geography FOR THE IB DIPLOMA

Standard and Higher Level. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. 7. Print.

• "National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda." Terminology in Demographic Statistics (NSIR). N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Aug. 2010. <statistics.gov.rw/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=201&Itemid=203>.

• "Standardized birth rate - Demopædia." Redirection. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Aug. 2010. <http://en-i.demopaedia.org/wiki/Standardized_birth_rate>.

• "Total Fertility Rate." Demographic and Health Surveys: MEASURE DHS Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Aug. 2010. <http://www.measuredhs.com/help/Datasets/Total_Fertility_Rate.htm>.