Differential fertility in Puerto Rico
Cofresi, E.
Puerto Rico Journal of Public Health and Tropical Medicine 25(4): 460-80; Spanish Transl 481-503
1950
ISSN/ISBN: 0370-1506 PMID: 15424338 DOI: 10.1080/00324728.1951.10414862Document Number: 521694
The data were obtained by means of questionnaires filled out by social workers of the Puerto Rican Departments of Health and of Education after personal interviews with 3520 married women (including women consensually married, such unions having previously been shown to involve 15.1% of all women). The measure of fertility was the number of live births per 100 married years. Fertility had no clear-cut relation to race, but was higher in rural areas than in urban ones. It varied inversely with family income, age, and educational attainment of the wife. The practice of birth control was more prevalent among urban women and varied proportionally with the family income and educational attainment of the wife. Birth control was more common among women of high fertility because these women turned to it as a check. The two most frequently given reasons for not practicing birth control were ignorance and opposition on the part of the husband; and only a small percentage gave religion as the main reason. The favored method of birth control was mechanical contraceptives; next in popularity was sterilization. The article is followed by a complete translation into Spanish (pp. 481-503).