Recent fertility patterns and population policy in South Africa
Chimere-dan, O.
Development Southern Africa 14(1): 1-20
1997
ISSN/ISBN: 0376-835X PMID: 12321787 DOI: 10.1080/03768359708439947Document Number: 277816
A discussion is presented which shows that beneath the declining trend reflected in national fertility data (from the 1993 Living Standards Survey) for South Africa lies a potential for the rate of decline to slow down as a result of a relatively high level of fertility among African women who have never been married and those under the age of 30. Women in these two situations attract policy attention because of their critical roles in the rate at which fertility declines. National population policy that deals with such women must go beyond the traditional population activities to include programmes concerned with the socioeconomic background of the emergent patterns of reproductive behaviour.