The decline of fertility in Costa Rica

Literacy, modernization and family planning

Bibliographic Data

ID4967913
AuthorsJ Mayone Stycos (Cornell University, corresponding author)
Year1982
Volume36
Issue1
Pages15-30
Publication date1982-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePopulation Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-4728 • E-ISSN: 1477-4747
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00324728.1982.10412561
PMID11630795
OpenAlexW2050407860
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited6

At mid-century when Costa Rica's birth rate was among the world's highest, marked fertility differences were recorded among the country's 68 cantons. Literacy levels and sex ratios largely account for the early differences, which were due to variations both in age at marriage and in marital fertility. Dramatic fertility declines were initiated in the 1960s in cantons in which literacy was higher and overall modernization more advanced. In a second phase, however, fertility in the less modernized cantons declined rapidly, especially where rates of family planning acceptance were high. Costa Rica's unusually high literacy early in the century and more recent gains in post-primary education are suggested as factors which precipitated the initial decline in fertility, with the national family planning programme serving to diffuse fertility control to less developed regions of the country

Birth rate · Economic growth · Economics · Family planning · Fertility · Geography · Literacy · Modernization theory · Political science · Population · Research methodology · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Total fertility rate · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences · Demography · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub